IT IS THE MALE BIRD THA T SINGS. 409 



melodies of song-birds to the females instead of to the males. The 

 explanation, we suppose, is that, as amongst ourselves women as a 

 rule are more musically inclined, and usually have sweeter voices 

 than men, even so the poets, knowing no better, rashly conclude 

 that the rule must hold good amongst song-birds also. The very 

 contrary, however, is the fact. It is the male bird that always 

 sings ; the female attempts at song being extremely rare, and when 

 attempted always a failure, never for a moment to be compared 

 with the rich and long-sustained melodies of the male. Of all our 

 song-birds, the most frequently mentioned by the poets is, of 

 course, the nightingale, and almost invariably they make it a 

 " she " instead of a " he." One of the finest passages in English 

 poetry is a reference to the nightingale in The Lover's Melancholy 

 of the dramatist John Ford (d. 1639). We are fond of reciting 

 this passage when " i' the vein " for such things, but we always 

 take the liberty of changing the "she," "hers," and "her" of 

 Ford, into the " he," " his," and " him " of ornithological fact. 



