THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 13 



Nay, the smaller birds also do the like in their particular 

 seasons, as namely the leverock, the tit-lark, the little linnet, 

 and the honest robin, that loves mankind both alive and dead. 



But the nightingale, another of my airy creatures, breathes 

 such sweet loud music out of her little instrumental throat, tliat 

 ~lt micrht make mankind to think miracles are not ceased. He 

 that at midnight, when the very laborer sleeps securely, should 

 hear, as I have very often, the clear airs, the sweet descants, the 

 natural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling of her 

 voice, might well be lifted above earth, and say. Lord, what 

 music hast thou provided for the saints in heaven, when thou 

 affordest bad men such music on earth ? 



And this makes me the less to wonder at the many aviaries in 

 Italy, or at the great charge of Varro's aviary,* the ruins of 

 which are yet to be seen in Rome, and is still so famous there, 

 that it is reckoned for one of those notables which men of foreign 

 nations either record, or lay up in their memories, when they 

 return from travel. 



This for the birds of pleasure, of which very much more 

 might be said. My next shall be of birds of political use : I 

 think 'tis not to be doubted that swallows have been taught to 

 carry letters, between two armies. But it is certain, that when 

 the Turks besieged Malta or Rhodes, I now remember not which 

 it was, pigeons are then related to carry and recarry letters. 

 And Mr. G. Sandys,f in his travels, relates it to be done between 

 Aleppo and Babylon. But if that be disbelieved, it is not to be 



* Walton has been thought to have gathered this out of his favorite 

 Hakewill's Apology for the Government of God, iv., 5, but what he cites 

 is not there, though extracts from Varro on aviaries are given. The 

 reader will find Varro's own account De Re Rustica, iii., 4, S, et seq. His 

 aviary, however, was at Casinum in the Volscian territory, and was, with 

 most of his wealth, taken from him by Anthony. — Am. Ed. 



t The passage occurs in the "Relation of a Journey, &c., by George 

 Sandys," who travelled extensively two years after, August, 1010, when 

 he left Oxford. He was the son of Sandys, Archbishop of York. He 

 paraphrased in verse the Psalms, Canticles, and Ecclesiastes, and trans- 

 lated Ovid's Metamorphoses and Grotius' tragedy on Christ's Passion. He 

 was an accomplished scholar, a sound versifier, and a pious man. — From 

 several authorities. 



