320 



NIGHTINGAL 1*. 



managing nightingales, do not so strictly belong to 

 the proper natural history of the birds as to the par- 

 ticular art of the bird-fancier, and, therefore, those who 

 wish for information on those particular birds will 

 naturally seek for it in the various works devoted to 

 the art. We shall therefore only farther notice very 

 shortly the appearance of the birds, so that any one 

 who chances to see a nightingale may know that 

 it is one, and learn in how very sober a dress the 

 sweetest songster of the groves is clad. The an- 

 nexed cut will give some idea of the general shape 

 of this songster. 



The size of the nightingale varies a little, but its 

 length is in general about five or six inches, of which 

 the tail takes up rather more than two. The tarsi 

 are long, adapting the bird for rather vigorous hop- 

 ping along the ground, upon which a considerable 

 portion of its food is found, both by poking and by 

 scraping. Its bill is more than half an inch in length, 

 and very slender, of a dull brown colour, but with a 

 yellowish tinge at the base of the lower mandible, 

 and the tarsi and toes are nearly of the same colour. 

 The upper parts are yellowish-brown, with traces of 

 reddish and sometimes greyish colour. The principal 

 quills and larger coverts of the wings are dusky brown, 

 with a reddish tinge on the margin of the feathers ; 

 and the tail, which is slightly forked, is darker brown, 

 and more inclining lo rod. The sides of the neck, 

 the ear-coverts, and the flanks, are pale ashen-grey, 

 passing into white on the throat and the middle of 

 the bell} r ; and a very obscure dusky mark proceeds 

 from the gape at each side toward the neck, and these 

 pass into pale ash-grey on the breast, dividing the 

 greyish-white on the throat from that on the belly. 

 None of the colours are by any means decided ; and 

 there is nothing striking in the appearance of the 

 bird. The female is but little different ; but the tarsi 

 are rather shorter, the head rounder, the eyes 

 smaller, and the throat not so white. 



Though nightingales feed chiefly, if not exclusively, 

 upon animal matters during their breeding season, 

 and though in consequence of this, independently of 

 their delicate constitutions, they could not, in all pro- 

 bability, endure the winter with us, or indeed in any 

 part of Europe, yet they are not absolutely confined 

 to animal food, but betake themselves to soft berries 

 for a supply before they leave the country, as is done 

 by many others of the summer birds of song. When 

 this is the case, they of course become, to a very con- 

 siderable extent,, tree-birds ; but, in their charac- 

 teristic season, they find great part of their food upon 

 the ground, though they also pick many caterpillars 

 from the leaves of the trees. 



Though the nightingale is exclusively a bird of the 

 eastern continent, to which nothing corresponding is 

 found in America, yet, with the local exceptions t' 

 which we have alluded, it is pretty generally distri- 

 buted over that continent, being found as far as- the 

 islands of Japan. In every land where it is met 

 with the nightingale is a favourite with the people 

 generally, and especially with the poets. The old 

 story of its song being a lamentation uttered by the 

 female when deprived of her mate is of course too 

 ridiculous for requiring any fornutl refutation at the 

 present day ; but still, as there are a good many 

 people fond of poetry, and but little conversant with 

 natural history, and as birds, especially singing bird?, 

 are favourite themes with poets, it may not be arniss 

 to put such in mind that the nightingale never sings 

 in sorrow ; that though the female does sing, it is but 

 rarely, and in strains far inferior in power and com- 

 pass to those of the male bird, which is always tho 

 nightingale of ordinary admiration and poetic de- 

 scription. 



The music of birds, we need hardly say, is almost 

 entirely produced at the bronchial end of the wind- 

 pipe ; and the muscles which give motion to that 

 organ in the male nightingale are larger and more 

 powerful, according to his size, than those of any 

 other bird. The song of the female is also much 

 finer than that of the female of any other warbler ; 

 and it is worthy of remark that the female is more like 

 the male in the nightingale than in any other species. 

 These great powers of song have not been given to 

 the nightingale without an inclination on its part to 

 put them into vigorous exercise. We have already 

 mentioned the tendency which the chattering cries 

 of less tuneful birds have to silence the nightin- 

 gale ; but it is evidently not from the love of silence, 

 but from the want of sufficient stimulus in the rival 

 sounds, that the nightingale abstains from singing on 

 these occasions. In its native groves the nightingale 

 rarely, if ever, sings against any other species of bird ; 

 and song-birds in general do not sing against those 

 which have notes inferior to their own, though most, 

 if not all of them, are prone enough to contend with 

 superior songsters, especially if there is much resem- 

 blance between the songs and the localities of the 

 birds. This propensity is of great advantage in the 

 teaching of singing-birds, because, to the full extent 

 of their powers, proper training enables them- u> 

 imitate either the notes of birds naturally superior, or 

 the notes of human music. There are many instances 

 of the contention of nightingales for the palm of 

 victory with human musicians ; and these are re- 

 corded of nightingales in so many countries, that 

 there can be little doubt of their truth. Bartolomeo 

 llicci calls on the nightingale as evidence of the 

 great superiority of Silvio Antoniano, as an impro- 

 visatore, accompanying his spontaneous verses on the 

 lyre when under the delightful temperature of au 

 Italian evening sky. Silvio was charming the ears 

 of the listeners by a very superior specimen of 

 his art : a nightingale, attracted by the tones, perched 

 close by, and sung in concert or in rivalship with the 

 poet ; upon which Silvio broke into an impassioned 

 strain in praise of the nightingale, and touched his 

 lyre with an effect which was perfectly magical. A 

 similar occurrence happened at the Jardm des Plantes 

 in Paris, although, as the human musician there was 

 no improvisatore, the nightingale got no song of 

 praise lor its exertions. M. Gerardiu was sauntering 



