THE NIGHTINGALE. 



A MODERN writer says : — "A friend had told me, 

 ' You will find the nightingale a lively sprightly bird, 

 and its song the joyful outpouring of a healthy, hearty, 

 happy individual.' And so indeed it proved. I at 

 once became enamoured of the little songster. Some 

 months afterwards, having in vain sought to steal upon 

 him in the bushes, which resounded with his melody, I, 

 at length, caught sight of the rusty little warbler in a 

 cage, which furnished his coyness with no concealment. 

 I wondered, with the ancient naturalist, Pliny, that so 

 small and mean a body should supply so loud a voice — 

 such a fund of spirit and earnestness." 



Coleridge also describes, in glowing terms, his feel- 

 ings in reference to the largest of British warblers, so 

 deservedly esteemed for the variety and richness of its 

 song, the compass of which is such as to reach through 

 three octaves. 



And, hark! the nightingale begins its song, 

 " Most musical, most melancholy " bird. 



