NIGHTINGALE. 



321 



hi the garden on a fine evening, at that season when 

 the nightingales are in most powerful song, and 

 listening with delight to two which were singing against 

 each other in the trees near him. He took his 

 German flute, and, touching a few passages in tender 

 airs, approached the spot whence the songs of the 

 birds came. At first they were silent ; but he con- 

 tinued, and, before long, they accepted his challenge, 

 and sung in a higher key than that in which he 

 touched the flute. Gerardin raised his key a third, 

 and instantly the birds raised their notes, still keep- 

 ing above him. He then raised it an entire octave ; 

 but, without hesitating a moment, the nightingales 

 raised their notes still higher, and Gerardin, acknow- 

 ledging that he was vanquished, put up his flute, and 

 lingered to enjoy their song of victory. 



In Moscow, at least before the conflagration of 

 that, city, which may have changed the eastern cha- 

 racter of mingled palace, and paradise, and hovel, 

 which it formerly exhibited, nightingales are tamed 

 and taught in great numbers ; and Dr. Clark states 

 that what with the tamed birds, what with the 

 wild ones singing in rivalship from the gardens and 

 groves, the streets of Moscow were vocal with night- 

 ingales, as completely and as long continued during 

 the night, as if they had been the groves of Italy, or 

 the rose-clad bowers of Persia. In the last men- 

 tioned country, the nightingale is an especial favourite. 

 The Persians are not only a highly poetical people, 

 but their sylvan poetry is of a high and exquisite 

 character. They therefore introduce the nightingale 

 (the Bui bul in their language), more frequently than 

 the poets of any other land. These allusions to it 

 are natural too, and partake little of that romance 

 which our poets have borrowed from the fables of the 

 ancients. The late Sir William Jones is a most com- 

 petent authority in all which relates to the poetry and 

 music of the East, especially of Persia ; and the fol- 

 lowing short quotation from him will show that the 

 nightingales of Persia are equally disposed to imitate 

 or contend with choice music, as the nightingales of 

 countries farther to the west. " An intelligent Per- 

 sian," says Sir William, in his Dissertation on the 

 Musical Modes of the Hindus, "declared he had 

 been more than once present, when a celebrated 

 lutanist, surnamed Bul bul (the nightingale), was 

 playing to a large company in a grove near Schiraz, 

 where he distinctly saw the nightingales trying to vie 

 with the musician ; sometimes warbling on trees, 

 sometimes fluttering from branch to branch, as if they 

 wished to approach the instrument, and at length drop- 

 ping on the ground in a kind of ecstacy, from which they 

 were soon raised, he assured me, by a change in the 

 mode." It would be easy to fill volumes with well 

 authenticated anecdotes, and impassioned descrip- 

 tions of this charming songster ; but the above must 

 suffice for our purpose. 



THE GREATER NIGHTINGALE. (M. Liiscinia ma- 

 jor, Linnaeus ; C. Philomela). The above description 

 applies chiefly or exclusively to the common night- 

 ingale of the species which visits England and the 

 west of Europe ; but there is, in the eastern parts of 

 central Europe, one which has been considered as a 

 different species, and that for the reasons following : 

 it is larger than the other, being an inch longer in the 

 body, half an inch longer in the tail, having a larger 

 head and stronger bill, and different in its colours and 

 its song. In this one the upper part of the body is 

 dusky brownish-grey, the white on the throat has a 



NAT. HIST. Vor.. III. 



dusky black border, the breast is brown mottled with 

 darker, the belly is dull white, and the wings and tail 

 are deeper brown than those of the common nightin- 

 gale. 



Altogether this seems a stronger and more vigo- 

 rous bird than the common nightingale ; and the 

 notes of its song are so loud that it can hardly be 

 tolerated in an apartment, except by those who are 

 passionately fond of birds. Altogether its song is far 

 inferior to that of the other, notwithstanding its ear- 

 piercing loudness ; and it is liable to break offand jar, 

 and not bring its melodies to those fine trills and caden- 

 ces which are so pleasant in the song of the common 

 nightingale. There is no particular mention of this one 

 in the south of Europe or the East ; and Austria and 

 Poland seem to be the countries in which it is most 

 abundant, though Hungary on the east, Bohemia on the 

 west, and partially also some parts of Saxony, are in- 

 cluded within its range. It is most plentiful near the 

 banks of the rivers in Hungary, and those of the 

 Vistula in Poland. It is said to be more numerous 

 there than the common nightingale, though its song 

 is inferior to what it is farther south. No mention is 

 made of the occurrence of this bird on the north side 

 of the Baltic, it has not occurred in Britain even as a 

 straggler we believe : and we are not aware of its 

 having occurred even in France. It thus seems pe- 

 culiar to a certain longitude in Europe, and is proba- 

 bly not so migratory in latitude as the common species ; 

 but of its manners, if they differ from the manners of 

 the other, nothing is known with certainty. The 

 difference in appearance between them seems of itself 

 scarcely sufficient to constitute a specific difference ; 

 and as for the difference of song, one would require 

 to hear the two birds before absolutely deciding be- 

 tween them. In order to enable the curious among 

 our readers to do this, we shall quote the literal trans- 

 lations of the t\vo as given by Bechstein, who, as 

 he endeavoured to make a sort of language for them, 

 is perhaps to be preferred to those who have mea- 

 sured their powers by the gamut of music. The 

 song of the common nightingale, says Bechstein, " is 

 so articulate, so speaking, that it may be very well 

 written," (of course he writes it well). " The fol- 

 lowing is a trial which I made on that of a nightin- 

 gale in my neighbourhood, which passes for a capital 

 singer : 



Tiou, tiou, tiou, tiou. 



Spe, tiou, squa. 



Tio, tio, tio, tio, tio, tio, tio, tix. 



Coutio, coutio, coutio, coutio. 



Squd, squd, squd, squd. 



Tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu. tzi. 



Corror, tiou, squa pipiqui. 



Zozozozozozozozozozozozo, zirrhading ! 



Tsissisi, isissuisisisinisis. 



Dzorre, dzorre, dzorre, dzorre, hi. 



Tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, taatu, dti. 



Dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo. 



Quio, Ir rrrrrrrr itz. 



Lu, lu, lu, lu, ly, ly, ly, ly, lie, lie, lit, lit. 



Quio, didl li liilylie. 



Hagurr, gurr quipio .' 



Coui, coui, coui, coui, qui, qui, qui, qui, gai, gui. gui, gni. 



Goll goll goll goll guia hadadoi. 



Couigui, liorr, ha, diadia dillsi .' 



Hezezezezezezezezezezezezezezezeze couar Iin dzn liai. 



Quia, quia, quia, quia, quia, quia, quia, qnm, ti. 



Ki, ki, ki, to, 'io, 'io, loioioio ki. 



Lu ly li le lui la leu Io, didl 'io quia. 



Kigaiguigaigaigaigaigai guiagaignifai toiiinr duo Jizo pi. 



X 



