THE NIGHTINGALE. 207 



if the tree be not very lofty. While it sings, the axis of the body is very oblique by the 

 elevation of the head, and the throat is much inflated. While the bird is trilling, in which 

 it excels every songster of the grove in rapidity and clearness, and in the swells and cadences 

 which it gives to the same trill, the throat has a very convulsive motion, and the whole bird 

 appears to be worked into a high state of excitement. It has indeed the mildest and most 

 witching notes of all our warblers ; it has not, certainly, the volume and variety of the night- 

 ingale, neither has it the ineffably sweet chant of the garden warbler ; but its notes take one 

 by surpise, and the changes, and especially the trills, are finer than those of any other bird. 



" The song, when the bird is at rest, appears to be by turns like those of several birds ; 

 but it transposes them into a lower, or rather a minor key, and finishes off with variations of 

 its own ; and. as is the case with the works of some of the more impassioned musical com- 

 posers, the very genius (so to speak) of the bird interferes with the melody, and a sort of 

 indescribable wildness is the character of the whole." 



The Blackcap has often been known to become a mimic of other birds, and will frequently 

 spoil its own exquisite notes by introducing imitations of the surrounding songsters. 



The food of the Blackcap consists chiefly of insects, but it also pays attention to the ripe 

 fruit in the autumn, being especially fond of raspberries. Perhaps it may choose this fruit on 

 account of the little white maggots that are so often found in the centre of the over-ripe rasp- 

 berry. When in captivity it can be easily tamed, and sings well ; but the capture and 

 domestication of a free singing bird always appears to me to be so heartless a business, that I 

 can never recommend any one to act in such a manner. 



As to the canary and birds of that class, which have never known liberty, and would be 

 quite bewildered if they were to escape into the open fields, not knowing where to obtain food 

 or where to roost, it would be a cruelty not to give them the welcome shelter of their accus- 

 tomed home, provided that the cage be roomy enough for them to exercise their wings, and 

 they be well supplied with food and water. But to imprison the restless nature of the free 

 wild bird in the midst of its happiness, to take away the power of flight, to remove it from its 

 well-loved woods and fields, to take it away from its expectant mate, and to imprison it 

 within the narrow precincts of a wire cage, merely for the purpose of gratifying our ears with 

 its song, is really so refined a piece of selfish barbarity, that I can but enter my strongest pro- 

 test against it. 



The nest of the Blackcap is generally placed only a foot or so above the ground, within 

 the shelter of a dense bush or tuft of rank herbage, and is composed- of vegetable fibres and 

 hairs rather loosely put together. The eggs are four or five in number, and are of a pale, 

 reddish-brown dappled with a deeper hue of brown. The general color of the Blackcap is 

 gray, with a wash of dark green upon the upper surface and ashen-gray upon the lower sur- 

 face. The total length of the bird is not quite six inches, its extent of wings nearly nine 

 inches, and its weight not quite half an ounce. 



THE well-known and far-famed NIGHTINGALE is an inhabitant of Europe, visiting the 

 northern countries about the middle of April, and remaining there until the breeding season 

 is over. 



The far northern countries of Europe are seldom visited by this bird, and in Ireland and 

 Scotland it is almost unknown. Attempts have been made to introduce the Nightingale into 

 different parts of England by substituting its eggs for those of robins and other small birds, 

 but although the young were regularly hatched and fledged, they all retired at the usual 

 season and never came back again. 



It is very probable that the quality and drainage of the soil and the character of the cul- 

 tivation may have some influence upon the Nightingale, for it is well known that certain 

 singing birds which had previously been excluded from the northern parts of England have 

 advanced northward together with cultivation, and the Nightingale may probably follow their 

 example. 



The food of the Nightingale consists principally of various insects, and it is so powerfully 

 attracted by the common meal-worm, that one of these creatures employed as a bait is sure to 



