NIGHTINGALE. 87 



late Rev. J. Lambert, fellow of Trinity College, lie told me 

 the following fact, illustrative of Virgil's extreme accuracy in 

 describing natural objects. We had been speaking of those 

 well-known lovely lines in the fourth G-eorgic on the Night- 

 ingale's lamentation for the loss of her young, when Mr. 

 Lambert told me that riding once through one of the toll- 

 gates near Cambridge, he observed the keeper of the gate 

 and his wife, who were aged persons, apparently much 

 dejected. Upon inquiring into the cause of their uneasiness, 

 the man assured Mr. Lambert that he and his wife had 

 both been made very unhappy by a Nightingale, which had 

 built in their garden, and had the day before been robbed 

 of its young. This loss she had been deploring in such a 

 melancholy strain all the night, as not only to deprive him 

 and his wife of sleep, but also to leave them in the morning 

 full of sorrow; from which they had evidently not recovered 

 when Mr. Lambert saw them.' ' 



The eggs, of a regular oval form, are of a uniform glossy 

 dull olive brown colour. They are sometimes tinged with 

 greyish blue, especially at the smaller end; some are greenish; 

 others brownish green; some are paler, mottled with olive 

 brown; and some are longer in shape than others. They are 

 four or five to six in number. They are laid in May, and 

 are rather large for the size of the bird. The male and 

 female both sit on them, but the latter the most. The 

 young, which are hatched in June, often leave the nest and 

 hop about on the ground in its neighbourhood before they 

 are able to fly. 



Male; weight, about six drachms; length, six inches and 

 three quarters. The upper bill is blackish brown, with a 

 tinge of red, the lower one pale yellowish, and dusky brown 

 at the tip; iris, dark brown, the feathers of the eyelids 

 brownish white. Head, crown, neck on the back, and nape, 

 uniform dull chesnut brown; chin and throat, dull greyish 

 white; breast, pale greyish brown, but lighter again lower 

 down. Back, reddish brown, varying considerably in different 

 individuals, some being much more red, and others more 

 grey. 



The wings, of eighteen quills, have the first quill feather 

 very short, the second equal in length to the fifth, the third 

 the longest, the fourth almost as long. They extend to the 

 width of ten inches and a half; primaries, secondaries, and 

 tertiaries, reddish brown, the inner webs dusky brown. The 



