PART III. 



NIGHTINGALES. Currucce. 



CHAPTER I. 



ENGLISH NIGHTINGALE. Curruca luscinia. 



OF all birds, this little favourite pos- 

 sesses the greatest reputation as a song- 

 ster. Inhabiting the whole of the Euro- 

 pean and Asiatic continents, he is every- 

 where the theme of the poet's empassioned 

 song, and the object of attachment. 

 Shakspeare and Byron of the west, and 

 Hafiz, Ferdousi and the thousand other 

 poets of the east, have elevated the 

 "Bulbul of a thousand songs" into a kind 

 of god-like immortality. With the rose 

 among flowers, the Nightingale is asso- 

 ciated among birds, and if all the descrip- 



