The Music-makers. 75 



to rear their foster-children. Sir 

 John looked on, delighted. Surely, 

 he thought, birds so kindly pro- 

 tected, so courteously treated, would 

 come back next year to the place 

 where they were bred ! 



But no! In September south 

 they flew. 



And they never returned at all ! 



It seemed a little ungrateful. 

 And Sir John Sinclair felt it to 

 be so. But perhaps the birds are 

 wiser than naturalists. Caithness 

 is rather wild, even in summer, and 

 trying for stronger natures than 

 Nightingales. 



It is said that the song of the 

 bird is sweeter and more powerful 

 in the East than in the West. In 

 Turkey and in Greece they sing 

 in a way no Italian bird can rival ; 

 while Italian nightingales outsing 

 those of France ; and French bird- 

 fanciers consider an English bird 

 not to be worth the trouble of 



