VOICES OF THE NIGHT 



climate, or vegetation, since the surroundings 

 which it finds suitable in Kent and Sussex 

 are equally to be found down hi the West 

 Country, but fail to attract their share of 

 nightingales. 



The song of the nightingale, in praise of 

 which volumes have been written, is perhaps 

 more beautiful than that of any other bird, 

 though I have heard wonderful efforts from 

 the mocking-bird in the United States and 

 from the bulbuls along the banks of the 

 Jordan. The latter are sometimes, more 

 especially hi poetry, regarded as identical 

 with the nightingale ; and, indeed, some 

 ornithologists hold the two to be closely 

 related. What a gap there is between the 

 sobbing cadences of the nightingale and the 

 rasping note of the nightjar, which, with 

 specific reference to a Colonial cousin of that 

 bird Tasmanians ingeniously render as 

 " more pork " ! It seems almost ludicrous to 

 include under the head of bird-song not only 

 the music of the nightingale, but also the 

 croak of the raven and the booming note of 

 the ostrich. Yet these also are the love-songs 

 of their kind, and the hen ostrich doubtless 

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