APPENDIX. 179 



IMITATION. Contin. 



mingled and more equable than by day, as if the minstrel felt that the 

 sober-seeming of the night required a solemnity of music peculiarly its 

 own. The night-song of the Mocking-bird, though in many of its modula- 

 tions it reminds us of that of the Nightingale of Europe, has less of 

 volume in it. There is not more variety, but a less frequent repetition of 

 those certain notes of ecstasy, which give such a peculiar character, and 

 such wild, intense, and all-absorbing feeling to the midnight song of the 

 European bird. Though the more regulated quality of the song of our 

 nightingale is less calculated to create surprise, it is more fitted to soothe 

 and console ; and that sensation of melancholy which is said to pervade 

 the melody of the European minstrel is substituted in the midnight sing- 

 ing of our bird by one of thoughtful and tranquil delight." Hill, R. : in 

 Gosse, P. H., Birds of Jamaica, p. 146. 



Note. Though this bird is given as Minus polyglottuSy it is probably 

 Mimus Orpheus. 



The Nightingale and his Rivals. 



In the famous old table quoted on next page, the nightin- 

 gale, as usual, stands first ; but as time goes on the prestige 

 of the Sappho- Jonson "dear glad angel of the spring" 

 seems to lessen. The claims of several rivals are pre- 

 sented ; and though in deference to the poets and to long- 

 established opinion, the manner of presentation is as yet 

 noticeably deferential, it is plain and sincere. The natu- 

 ral, tender-hearted bird-fancier before quoted (See Index, 

 Nat. Hist, of Eng. Song-birds) speaking of the woodlark 

 says : " He is not only, as some have said, comparable to 

 the nightingale for singing, but in my judgment, deserving 

 to be preferred before that excellent bird." Elsewhere he 

 draws a more detailed comparison between these songsters : 



"Notwithstanding the particular fancy of divers persons for this or 

 that bird, which they esteem and prefer to all others, the nightingale, by 

 the generality of mankind, is still accounted the chief of all singing-birds ; 

 he sends forth his pleasant notes with so lavish a freedom, that he makes 



