The Music-makers. 73 



" 'tis for good that they be singing 

 so sweet. God bless them." 



***** 



The greatest of all our music- 

 makers is the Nightingale. 



The pity is that it is so talked of, 

 so written about, and so seldom 

 heard. But for those who know its 

 song, and do not watch in vain for 

 its coming in the spring, there is no 

 singer amongst all our British birds 

 that can approach it. 



Ever since the time of Homer, 

 poets have praised the Nightingale. 

 From Persian rose-groves to the 

 banks of the river Thames men 

 have halted, spell-bound, to hearken 

 to its wondrous song. A moonlit 

 night, and a nightingale sitting singing 

 upon a hawthorn spray do not the 

 very words give one a sensation of 

 romantic delight scarcely to be out- 

 done by any other idea ? 



There are some very queer things 

 about Nightingales. For instance, 



