296 HABITS OF BIRDS, 



porters and chairmen, carrying luggage, nearly came 

 in contact with the cage, which was hung at the foot 

 of the staircase; yet even here did this bird sine; as 

 mellow, as sweet, and as sprightly as did those at 

 Geneva. We have often stopped to hear it, and 

 listened with the greatest pleasure ; and as the pie- 

 man passed with his jingling bell, a sound now sel- 

 dom heard in the streets of Edinburgh, the bird 

 seemed more sprightly, and warbled with renewed 

 spirit and energy*," 



The opinion that the nightingales of the north are 

 inferior in song is by no means of modern origin, 

 for we find the superiority of the Italian over the 

 Scottish birds asserted both by Petrus Appanensisf, 

 and by the Dutch naturalist Jonston not Dr. 

 Johnson, the lexicographer, as is commonly stated 

 in books. This, however, is a mere theory, for it is 

 very questionable whether the nightingale ever visits 

 either Ireland J or Scotland, though on the Conti- 

 nent it is found sparingly as far north as Sweden . 

 We have only heard of one instance of the nightingale 

 building in Scotland, namely, in the Earl of Eglin- 

 ton's woods in Ayrshire|| ; and though Dr. Latham ^[ 

 mentions two having been met with on the banks of 

 the Forth in Stirlingshire, and Mr. Syme tells us of 

 one in Dumfries-shire, and another in a garden in 

 Leith walk, near Edinburgh **, we consider the evi- 

 dence on which these statements have been made, at 

 the best, doubtful. 



Taking the inferiority of the song of nightingales 

 visiting the north as a matter proved, and mixing up 

 with this notion certain other circumstances equally 



* British Song Birds, p. 97. f In Problem. Aristot. 



| Boterus apud Aldrovand, ii. 342. 



Latham, Gen. Hist, of Birds, vii. 6, note. 



|| J. R. ^f As above, p. 5, note. 



** Brit. Song Birds, p. 112. 



