528 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Docility Gessner's anecdote. 



singers the muscles of the larynx were the strong-. 

 est. Those in the nightingale were stronger than 

 in any other bird of the same size. When we 

 consider the size of many singing birds, it is really 

 amazing to what a distance their notes can be 

 heard. Jt is supposed that those of a nightin- 

 gale may be heard above half a mile, if the even- 

 ing be calm. 



These birds will adopt the notes of others; 

 and will even chant the stiff airs of a nightingale^- 

 pipe. They may be instructed to sing by turns 

 with a chorus, and to repeat their couplet at the 

 proper time. Mr. Stackhouse, of Feudarvis, in 

 Cornwall, has remarked, that the nightingale 

 will modulate its voice to any given key; he 

 says, if any person whistle a note to it, the bird 

 will immediately try, in its strain, an unison with 

 it. Nightingales may also be taught to articu- 

 late words. The sons of the emperor Claudius, 

 according to Pliny, had some nightingales that 

 spoke Greek and Latin. 



Gessner likewise assures as, that it is not only 

 the most agreeable songster in a cage, but that 

 it is possessed of a most admirable faculty of 

 talking. He tells the following story in proof of 

 his assertion, which, he says, was communicated 

 to him by a friend. " Whilst I was at Kntis- 

 hon," says his correspondent, " I put up at an. 

 inn, the sign of the Golden Crown, where my 

 host had three nightingales. What 1 am going 

 to ix-pcat is wondeiiul, aluioj>t iucrtdibie, and ye* 



