80 OUR IRISH SONG BIRDS. 



the fact that, as she sang, she " leaned her breast up till 

 a thorn." For so Lucrece : 



" And whiles against a thorn thou bear'st thy part 

 To keep thy sharp woes waking." 



So, too, Pomfret : 



" The first music of the grove we owe 

 To mourning Philomel's harmonious woe ; 

 And while her grief in charming notes expressed, 

 A thorny bramble pricks her tender breast." 



Mr. Harting thinks that Sir Thomas Browne was 

 probably right when he ascribed the origin of this odd 

 idea to the fact that " the Nightingale placeth her some 

 prickles on the outside of her nest, or roosteth in thorny, 

 prickly places, where serpents may least approach her." 

 It has been noticed, however, in The Zoologist for 1862, 

 by Rev. A. C. Smith, that on two occasions a strong 

 thorn was found projecting upwards in the centre of the 

 Nightingale's nest, the result, of course, of accident ; 

 and Mr. Hewitson has adduced similar instances in the 

 case of the Hedge Sparrow. 



So much has been written about the song of the 

 Nightingale, that I think it unnecessary to say much 

 upon the subject. The two things that most impressed 

 me in it were its liquidness and its power. In the first 

 of these qualities I believe that no songster can 

 approach the Nightingale; and with regard to the latter, 

 I was astonished to find, in listening to a Nightingale in 

 England, at Anglesey, near Alverstoke, when on a visit 

 to my old pupil, F. J. Barton, that the concluding notes 

 were taken up by an echo. I at first imagined that I 

 was listening to another bird at a distance ; but I soon 

 found that this was not the case. 



