CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 91 



all that loved and beheld him, and in an instant turns 

 to putrefaction. 



Nay more, the very birds of the air, those that be not 

 Hawks, are both so many and so useful and pleasant 

 to mankind, that I must not let them pass without some 

 observations: they both feed and refresh him; feed 

 him with their choice bodies, and refresh him with 

 their heavenly voices * : I will not undertake to men- 

 tion the several kinds of Fowl by which this is done : 

 and his curious palate pleased by day, and which with 

 their very excrements afford him a soft lodging at 

 night : These I will pass by, but not those little nimble 

 Musicians of the air, that warble forth their curious 

 ditties, with which nature hath furnished them to the 

 shame of art. 



As first the Lark, when she means to rejoice ; to 

 chear herself and those that hear her; she then quits the 

 earth, and sings as she ascends higher into the air, and 

 having ended ^ her heavenly employment, grows then 

 mute, and sad, to think she must descend to the dull 

 earth, which she would not touch, but for necessity. 



How do the Blackbird and Thrassel with their me- 

 lodious voices bid welcome to the chearful Spring, and 

 in their fixed months warble forth such ditties as no 

 art or instrument can reach to ! 



Nay, the smaller birds also do the like in their par- 

 ticular seasons, as namely the Leverock, the Tit-lark, 

 the little Linnet, and the honest Robin that loves man- 

 kind both alive and dead. 



But the Isightingale, another of my airy creatures, 

 breathes such sweet loud musick out of her little in- 

 strumental throat, that it might make mankind to 

 think miracles are not ceased. He that at midnight, 

 when the very labourer sleeps securely, should hear, as 



* To these particulars, may be added, That the Kings of Persia were 

 wont to hawk after Butterflies with Sparrows and Stares, or Starlings, 

 trained for the purpose. Burton en Melancholy, 1651. p. 268, from the 

 relations of Sir Anthony Shirley. And v.e are also told, That M. de 

 Luynes (afterwards Prime Minister of France,) in the nonage of Lewis 

 XIII. gained much upon him by making Hawks catch little Bads, and by 

 making some of those little Birds, again catch Butterflies. 



Life of Lord Herbert vf Cberbury, p. 134, 



