312 NOVEMBER. 



migration to struggle with ; and it may be safely 

 asserted, that out of every ten nightingales so 

 caught, nine pine away and die. Yet the cap- 

 ture of nightingales is very extensively practised. 

 The bird-catchers declare them to be the most 

 easily taken of all birds ; and scarcely can one of 

 these glorious songsters alight in a copse or a 

 thicket, but these kidnappers are upon it. Some of 

 these men assure me that the female birds arrive 

 about ten days later than the males, whose songs 

 give notice of their retreats, on hearing which the 

 females alight; therefore, when nightingales first 

 appear, the bird-catchers are almost sure of taking 

 only male-birds, which, being the singers, are the 

 only ones they want. The nightingale, a bird 

 which God has created to fly from land to land to 

 crown the pleasantness of spring with the most 

 delicious music ; or a lark, which he has made to 

 soar, in the rapture of its heart, up to Heaven's 

 gates, "cribbed, cabined, and confined" in a nar- 

 row cage by man, is one of the most melancholy 

 objects on earth. Let those who have hearts for it 

 keep them, and listen to them with what pleasure 

 they may ; for my part, while I am myself sensible 

 of the charms of freedom, and of the delights of the 

 summer fields, I shall continue to prefer the " wood 

 notes wild" of liberty to a captive's wail. 



DAILY WAYFARERS. Of all the vast class of 

 human creatures who are doomed to diurnal weari- 



