N I G II T I N G A L E. 



ad singing birds of all descriptions much more 

 attended to, than they are in this country. 



The nightingale is a bird of many names, and 

 some others of the migrant birds of song are called 

 nightingales, or, at least, by the popular names which 

 the nightingale receives in different parts of the 

 world. It is the Philomela of the ancients ; that is, 

 the bird that " loves darkness." This love of dark- 

 ness is, however, not absolutely correct. During the 

 period of its natural song, the nightingale does indeed 

 sing later in the evening and earlier in the morning 

 than any of its fellow-choristers of the grove ; but 

 there is, in some places at least, a silent hour or two 

 in the dead of the night when the voice of the 

 nightingale is not heard ; but it always begins be- 

 tween dawn and sun-rise, and generally very near 

 the first. It does not appear, however, to be partial 

 to the chattering notes of many other birds. In the 

 early time of fine summer mornings nothing can be 

 more delightful than the rcvelliu of the nightingale, 

 when one is lying quietly in bed, with the window 

 open, and no sound heard save that of the bird. The 

 volume which it pours forth upon these occasions 

 appears absolutely to make the air shiver and thrill, 

 even tliough the songster is a furlong or two distant ; 

 and if two or more, posted in different parts of the 

 grove, sing against each other, as is very often the 

 case, their songs, which fall upon different parts of 

 each other like a glee set for several voices, have a 

 very pleasing effect. What may be the signal for 

 nightingales giving over their song in the wild woods, 

 we have had no means of ascertaining; but, in those 

 which frequent groves surrounded with houses we 

 have generally, if not invariably, found that the chat- 

 tering of the house-sparrows puts an immediate stop 

 to the music of the nightingales, even while the 

 nightingales are in the woods, and the sparrows on 

 the house-tops. We do not, of course, pretend to say 

 that the din of the sparrows is the real cause of the 

 silence -of the nightingales, or that there is any tend- 

 eiu'v on the part of the latter to scorn the contest 

 with such tuneless chatterers ; but we have observed 

 the fact during a succession of too many mornings 

 for its being merely accidental in any one of them. 

 It seems, indeed, that, however the aversion mav 

 operate, there is an aversion to singing, in a state of 

 nature at least, in nightingales, if they have not all 

 the song to themselves. We have heard them put to 

 silence by a wild duck, scared from the ground within 

 their heaiing ; and they do not sing when the ind 

 is so strong as to rustle the leaves and shake the 

 branches against each other, or when the rain falls in 

 heavy drops, and makes its well-known pattering 

 sound. In some situations, at least, the singing at 

 night is prolonged into greater darkness than that at 

 which the morning song commences ; but this, of course, 

 differs according to circumstances. While these birds 

 continue their notes (and during the hours of song 

 there are but few pauses), it is clear that they can 

 n-either seek food for themselves, nor contribute 

 either to the nourishment or the accommodation of 

 their young. How much of the duty of attending 

 to these may devolve on the female nightingale we 

 cannot say ; but it is by no means unlikely that their 

 songs, as well as those of many other birds, are 

 delivered for the purpose (not with the intention on 

 their part) of stimulating the female to the energetic 

 performance of some duties. They are certainly not 

 mere love-notes, affecting the nuptials of the birds, 



and nothing more ; for they extend over imich of the 

 hatching time, and do not cease when the young have 

 broken the shell. Singing birds, from their numbers, 

 the variety of their notes, the seasons with which 

 they are associated, and a variety of other circum- 

 stances, which, though they do not come within the 

 j category of mere calculating economy, have yet a 

 I wonderfully rousing effect upon the minds and the 

 activity of mankind, are highly interesting creature?. 

 Their singing is the most interesting circumstance 

 about them ; and therefore it were highly desirable 

 that those who have opportunity, inclination, and 

 leisure, for studying the manners of birds in some- 

 thing like a satisfactory way, should pay particular 

 attention to how the female bird is employed whoa 

 the male bird is engaged in what may be called the 

 family music. It has been observed that the females 

 of various other birds are strongly excited by the 

 voices of the males when there can be no possible 

 influence of pairing in the case. The crowing of the 

 common domestic cock, or of any other of the galli- 

 naceous birds, is not a love-note, but rather a song- 

 of triumph for the overcoming or avoiding of some 

 real or apprehended danger. The love-notes of that 

 order of birds are soft and low ; and it is probable 

 that those of most other birds, and of mildly-disposed 

 animals in general, are of the same character. The 

 loves of the cats, indeed, seem, as Bottom says, to be 

 the enactment of " a part to tear a cat in ;" though 

 that is not exactly the result. We are but little 

 acquainted with " the loves of the lions," but it is 

 not probable that roaring at the "top of his bent" 

 is even the lion's mode of courtship. 



This is a very curious subject altogether, arid one 

 to which nobody has yet done anything like justice ; 

 and justice cannot be done to it without a great deal 

 of the most close and judicious observation, without 

 which mere speculations would avail but little. There 

 is no doubt that the working out of results in natural 

 history must be in great part speculative, as is the 

 | case in everything else ; but this speculation must 

 follow the observation of the facts, and not go before 

 it. To return, however, to the analogies of the birds. 

 Many persons must have observed the absolute in- 

 spiration, as it were, with which a brood hen is stimu- 

 lated to courage by hearing a cock crow in the- 

 moment of danger. A brood hen is naturally brave 

 enough ; but the sound of the crowing transports her 

 into a perfect fury, even when her maternal attach- 

 ment is still wholly absorbed by her young brood ; 

 and it is by no means improbable that the notes of 

 the singing birds may, in part at least, answer some 

 such purpose, though their enemies, at least when 

 i in the trees, are much less formidable, even in pio- 

 j portion, than those with which the hen has to contend 

 in the protecting of her chickens. 



Naturalists have not been wanting who have ad- 

 vanced the opinion that there are more species, or, 

 at all events, varieties of nightingales, than one ; and 

 that, besides differences of colour and size, there are 

 day-singers and night-singers, as distinct varieties, 

 which continue their different hours of song at least 

 for two or three generations. Now, the differences 

 of colour in nightingales are never very great ; and 

 the differences of the two sexes in this respect are less 

 than perhaps those of any other song birds ; so that 

 it is probable that these, as well as the slight dif- 

 ferences of size, are occasioned by differences of 

 locality ; for there is scarcely any species of bird 



