148 THE WOODLANDS. 



of the Nightingale, 1 but none more flattering than 

 that of old Izaak Walton. " He that at midnight, 

 when the very labourer sleeps securely, should hear, as 

 I have very often, the clear airs, the sweet descants, 

 the natural rising and falling, the doubling and re- 

 doubling of her voice, might well be lifted above 

 earth, and say, Lord, what music hast Thou provided 

 for the saints in Heaven, when Thou affordest bad 

 men such music on earth." It seems to be a refine- 

 ment of cruelty to shut up such a songster in a cage, 

 and a just revenge that the song obtained under such 

 conditions is inferior to that chanted freely amongst 

 the trees. Catching nightingales is a profitable em- 

 ployment around large towns. Mr. Harting tells ot 

 one adept at bird-catching near London, who at one 

 time rented a cottage at ^10 a year. " If there was 

 what he called a good nightingale season, he made 

 more than enough to pay his rent by the capture and 

 sale of these birds ! In one season alone he caught 

 fifteen dozen, receiving eighteen shillings a dozen for 

 them in London. He told me also that on one 

 occasion he caught no less than nineteen nightingales 

 before breakfast in the grounds of one gentleman, 

 and in sight of the windows ; for which, as I told him, 

 he ought to have been transported." 



The Blackcap 2 is considered by some as a warbler 

 second only to the Nightingale. It also is a summer 

 visitor, and of very modest plumage. In song it is 

 almost a " mocking bird," for it will seem to copy the 

 notes of the Nightingale and other birds that it chances 



1 Sylvia luscinia. 2 Sylvia atricapilla. 



