216 THE NIGHTINGALE. 



never sing in the night, even when it is surrounded by nocturnal nightin- 

 gales. I have also remarked that the night singers prefer mountainous 

 countries, and even mountains themselves, whilst the others prefer plains, 

 valleys, and the neighbourhood of water. I will also venture to affirm 

 that all the night singers found in the plains have strayed from the moun- 

 tains ; thus in my neighbourhood, inclosed in the first chains of the moun- 

 tains of Thuringia, we hear only night singers, and in the plains of Gotha 

 they know only the day nightingale. 



It is a pity that the time for this delightful bird's song should be so 

 short, that is to say, when wild. It endures hardly three months; and 

 during this short interval it is not maintained with equal power. At its 

 first arrival it is the most beautiful, continued, and impassioned ; when 

 the young are hatched, it becomes more rare ; the attentions which they 

 require occ 1 pying considerable time. If from time to time the nightin- 

 gale's song is heard, it is evident that the fire which animated it is much 

 weakened. After midsummer all is ended, nothing is heard but the war- 

 bling of the young, which seem to study their father's song, and try to 

 imitate it. The nightingale sings much longer in confinemeiit : birds 

 which are caught full grown sometimes sing from November to Easter ; 

 those which are bred from the nest sing much longer, sometimes as long 

 as seven months ; but in order that they may sing well they must be put 

 under the instruction of an old nightingale which is a good singer, otherwise 

 they will be only stammerers, mutilating their natural song, and inserting 

 in a confused manner tones and passages which they have caught from 

 other birds. If, however, they have a good instructor, and a good me- 

 mory, they imitate perfectly, and often add to their instructor's song some 

 beauties of their own, as is usual among young birds *. 



I cannot help here mentioning the cruel and disgusting selfishness of 

 some men, who, in order a little to prolong the song of this interesting 

 bird, sacrifice to their transient gratification its eyes, by blinding it, as is 

 done to the lark and the chaffinch. 



It is said that a nightingale and a female red-breast running free in the 

 room will sometimes pair, and produce mulea, but I have no experience on 

 this subject. 



I cannot better complete my account of the nightingale's song than by 

 transcribing the delightful, though somewhat exaggerated picture, which has 

 been given of it by Buffon. " There is no well organised man/' says he, 



moper sings only at intervals, unconnectedly, and always makes pauses of some 

 minutes between each strain. All nightingales become mopers when they reach 

 five or six years of age ; whence arises the mistake of many persons, who think 

 they possess a nocturnal when they have really only a moper. The reverse hap- 

 pens sometimes, also ; for a true nocturnal bird, caught such, often loses his power 

 after one or two years of captivity, and is then a mere moper. AUTHOR 



* It must, however, be owned, that of twenty young nightingales bred from the 

 nest, scarcely one succeeds in all respects. They seldom possess their natural song 

 in its purity; they almost invariably introduce, in spite of all their instruction, 

 foreign and disagreeable tones. The young which are caught in the month of 

 August, before their departure, are the best they hare already learnt their 

 father's song, and they perfect it the following spring, if they are placed beside 

 a good singer. AUTHOR. 



