THE SPARROW KIND. 265 



sition ; now seeming to renew the same strain, 

 then deceiving expectation ! She sometimes seems 

 to murmur within herself; full, deep, sharp, swift, 

 drawling, trembling ; now at the top, the middle, 

 and the bottom of the scale ! In short, in that lit- 

 tle bill seems to reside all the melody which man 

 has vainly laboured to bring from a variety of mu- 

 sical instruments. Some even seem to be possess- 

 ed of a different song from the rest, and contend 

 with each other with great ardour. The bird 

 overcome is then seen only to discontinue its 

 song with its life." 



This most famous of the feathered tribe visits 

 England in the beginning of April, and leaves us 

 in August. It is found but in some of the sou- 

 thern parts of the country, being totally unknown 

 in Scotland, Ireland, or North Wales. They fre- 

 quent thick hedges and low coppices, and gene- 

 rally keep in the middle of the bush, so that they 

 are rarely seen. They begin their song in the 

 evening, and generally continue it for the whole 

 night. For weeks together, if undisturbed, they 

 sit upon the same tree ; and Shakespeare rightly 

 describes the nightingale sitting nightly in the 

 same place, which I have frequently observed she 

 seldom departs from. 



From Pliny's description we should be led to 

 believe this bird possessed of a persevering strain ; 

 but though it is in fact so with the nightingale 

 in Italy, yet in our hedges in England the little 

 songstress is by no means so liberal of her music. 

 Her note is soft, various, and interrupted ; she 

 seldom holds it without a pause above the time 



