74 



INTRODUCTION. 



that would sing for hours against a Nightingale, the same bird 

 that is now in song at my house. 



I always tind the male birds of this tribe sing more and 

 louder when a female of the same species is in the cage with 

 them; bnt the females seldom sing; I had a female Redstart 

 which sung a little ; and female Bultinches sing as frequently 

 as the males. 



I am, Sir, 



Yours, truly, 



R. Sweet. 



The fact that the songs of birds are prompted chiefly by 

 love is finely described by Thomson ; indeed, the lover of 

 nature, and particularly of ovnitholof^y, can scarcely read 

 that poet too often : 



*' Up springs the Lark, 

 Shrill voic'd and loud the messenger of morn ; 

 Ere yet the shadows fly, he mounted sings 

 Amid the dawning clouds, and from their haunts 

 Calls up the tuneful nations. Every copse 

 Deep-tangled, tree irregillar, and bush 

 Bending with dewy moisture, o'er the heads 

 .Of the coy quiristers that lodge within, 

 A-re prodigal of harmony. The Thrush, 

 The Wood-lark, o'er the kind contending throng 

 Superior heard, run through the sweetest length 

 Of notes; when listening Philomela deigns 

 To let them joy, and purposes in thought 

 Elate to make her night excel their day. 

 The Blackbird whistles from the thorny brake, 

 The mellow Bulfinch answers from the grove; 

 Nor are the Linnets, o'er the flowering furze 



this genus may be managed, and kept in as good health as any 

 common bird whatever ; by Robert Sweet, f.l.s. author of 

 Hortus Suburbanus Londinensis, ^c. ^c," 8vo. 



