164 Midland Village: Railway and Woodland. 



note, which no other bird attempts, conveys to 

 the mind of the listener the fiery intensity of the 

 high-strung singer. It is a pity to compare the 

 songs of birds ; our best singers, Thrush, Black- 

 bird, Blackcap, Robin, and Garden-warbler, all 

 have a vocal beauty of their own ; but it may 

 safely be said that none approaches the Night- 

 ingale in fire and fervour of song, or in the 

 combination of extraordinary power with variety 

 of phrase. He seems to do what he pleases with 

 his voice, yet never to play with it ; so earnest 

 is he in every utterance and these come at 

 intervals, sometimes even a long silence making 

 the performance still more mysterious that if I 

 were asked how to distinguish his song from the 

 rest, I should be inclined to tell my questioner to 

 wait by a wood side till he is fairly startled by a 

 bird that puts his whole ardent soul into his song. 

 But if he will have a description, let him go to 

 old Pliny's tenth book, or rather to Philemon 

 Holland's translation of it, which is much better 

 reading than the original ; and there he will find 

 the most enthusiastic of the many futile attempts 

 to describe the indescribable. 



