SONGS. 315 



the nightingale, so far as we have remarked, always. 

 We have, however, heard some of these night 

 songs, which were manifestly uttered while the bird 

 was asleep, in the same way as we sometimes talk 

 during sleep a circumstance remarked by Dryden, 

 who says, 



a The little birds in dreams their songs repeat*." 



We have even observed this in a wild bird. On 

 the night of the 6th April, 1811, about ten o'clock, a 

 dunnock (Accentor modularis) was heard in a gar- 

 den to go through its usual song more than a dozen 

 times very faintly, but distinctly enough for the 

 species to be recognised. The night was cold and 

 frosty ; but might it not be that the little musician 

 was dreaming of summer and sunshine t? Aris- 

 totle, indeed, proposes the question, whether animals 

 hatched from eggs ever dream J. Marcgrave in re- 

 ply expressly says that his " parrot, Laura, often 

 rose in the night and prattled while half asleep ." 



* Indian Emperor. 



t J. Rennie on the Singing of Birds, Edinb. Mag. Jan. 1819, 

 p. 14. 



I Hist. Anim. v. 10. Hist. Rerum Nat. 



