88 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



in which some accident has occurred to break in 

 upon the usual habits of the species; the nest 

 perhaps destroyed, whereby the season of nidification 

 has been prolonged ; or they are cocks whose mates 

 have been killed, and who have been unsuccessful in 

 procuring others. When I hear a nightingale in 

 July continuing its plaintive song so long after all 

 its companions have ceased, with the thought that it 

 may be due to the destruction of its first brood, such 

 misfortune stimulating it to fresh exertions, I 

 cannot help calling to mind those well-known lines 

 of Virgil, which, under such circumstances, are so 

 strictly applicable. 



" Quails populea mcerens Philomela sub umbra 

 Amissos queritur fetus ; quos durus arator 

 Observans nido implumes detraxit : at ilia 

 Flet noctem, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen 

 Integral, et mcestis late loca questibus implet." 



Georg. iv. 511. 



" So, close in poplar shades, her children gone, 

 The mother Nightingale laments alone, 

 Whose nest some prying churl had found, and thence, 

 By stealth, conveyed th' unfeather'd innocence : 

 But she supplies the night with mournful strains, 

 And melancholy music fills the plains." 



DRYDEN. 



The following table shows the periods of the principal 

 species of birds commencing, ceasing, and re-assum- 

 ing song, or note, in this neighbourhood. It is for 

 the most part similar to the table given by White.* 



* In his Second letter to Daines Barrington. 



