THE NIGHTINGALE. 



H7 



totally unknown in Scotland, Ireland, or 

 North Wales. They frequent thick hedges 

 arid low coppices, and generally keep in the 

 middle of the bush, so that they are rarely 

 seen. They begin their song in the evening, 

 and generally continue it for the whole night. 

 For weeks together, if undisturbed, they sit 

 upon the same tree; and Shakspeare rightly 

 describes the nightingale sitting nightly in the 

 same place, which I have frequently ob- 

 served she seldom departs from. 1 



1 The Nightingale. " The nightingale, whose plum- 

 age is very ordinary, is scarcely five inches long, two 





and a half of which belong to the tail. But in confine- 

 ment, when it is well fed, and especially when it has 

 been bred from the nest, it is commonly larger, reach- 

 ing sometimes the size of a lark. VVhen wild, nightin- 

 gales are found throughout Europe, as far as the north of 

 England, and the middle of Sweden ; in all Asia, as far 

 as the temperate regions of Siberia; and in Africa, on 

 the banks of the Nile. They every where choose for 

 their residence places which are shady, cool, but not 

 cold, such as woods, thickets, and even mere hedges in 

 the fields. Groves, thick brambles, tufted bushes near 

 fields and meadows, are their favourite abodes. They 

 also like gardens planted with untrimmed elm-hedges, 

 which are consequently thick and bushy down to the 

 ground. Their principal food is insects, especially 

 green caterpillars, of which they clear the bushes and 

 trees, butterflies, flies, and beetles, and the .grubs of 

 insects hid among moss or in the earth. At their de- 

 parture, towards the end of summer, they also eat elder- 

 berries and currants. They build their nests in a grove 

 or orchard, among a heap of branches, or in a thorn 

 bush, or the trunk of a tree surrounded by briars. They 

 are easily caught with limed twigs, or nooses and 

 springs. When allowed to fly freely in rooms, they do 

 not sing so well as in cages, which should be of an ordi- 

 nary size, and formed of osiers. 



The first good quality of a nightingale is undoubtedly 

 its fine voice, and notes which 1 shall endeavour to de- 

 scribe. The nightingale expresses his different emo- 

 tions by suitable and particular tones. The most un- 

 meaning cry when he is alone appears to be a simple 

 \\hist\ejitt, but if the syllable err is added, it is then the 

 call of the male to the female. The sign of displeasure 

 or fear is jilt repeated rapidly and loudly before adding 

 the terminating err; whilst that of satisfaction and 

 pleasure, such, for example, a? conjugal endearments, 

 or, on the occasion of finding a delicate morsel, is a 

 deep tack, which may be imitated by smacking the 

 tongue. In anger, jealousy, rivalry, or any extra- 

 ordinary event, he utters hoarse disagreeable sounds, 

 somewhat like a jay or a cat. Lastly, in the season of 

 paring, when the male and female entice and pursue 



From Pliny's description, we should be led 

 to believe this bird possessed of a persevering 

 strain ; but though it is in fact so with the 

 nightingale in Italy, yet, in our hedges in 

 England, the little songstress is by no means 

 so liberal of her music. Her note is soft, 

 various, and interrupted ; she seldom holds it 

 without a pause above the time that one can 

 count twenty. The nightingale's pausing 

 song would be the proper epithet for this bird's 

 music with us, which is more pleasing than 



each other, from the top of a tree to its base, and thence 

 again to the top, a gentle subdued warbling is all that 

 is heard. 



Nature has granted these tones to both sexes; hut the 

 male is particularly endowed with so very striking a 

 musical talent, tiiat in this respect he surpasses all birds, 

 and has acquired the name of the king of songsters. The 

 strength of his vocal organ is indeed wonderful ; and it 

 has been found that the muscles of his larynx are much 

 more powerful than those of any other bird. But it is 

 less the strength than the compass, flexibility, pro- 

 digious variety, and harmony of his voice, which make 

 it so admired by all lovers of the beautiful. Sometimes 

 dwelling for minutes on a strain composed of only two 

 or three melancholy tones, he begins in an under voice, 

 and swelling it gradually by the most superb crescendo 

 to the highest point of strength, he ends it by a dying 

 cadence ; or it consists of a rapid succession of more 

 brilliant sounds, terminated, like many other strains of 

 his song, by some detached ascending notes. Twenty- 

 four different strains or couplets may be reckoned in 

 the song of a fine nightingale, without including its 

 delicate little variations; for among these, as among 

 other musicians, there are some great performers and 

 many middling ones. This song is so articulate, so 

 speaking, that it may be very well written. The fol- 

 lowing is a trial which I have made on that of a night- 

 ingale in my neighbourhood, which passes for a very 

 capital singer: 



Tiou, tiou, tiou, tiou. 



Spe, tiou, syua. 



Tio, tio, tio, tio, tio } tio, tio, tit. 



Coutio, coutia, coutio, coutio. 



Squo, squo, squo, squo. 



Tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, Izu, tzi. 



Corror, tiou, squa pipiqui. 



Zozozozozozozozozozozozo, zirrhading ! 



Tsissisi, tsissisisisisisisis. 



Dzorre, dzorre, dzorre, dzorre, hi. 



Tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu. txalu, del. 



Dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo. 



Quio tr rrrrrrrr itz. 



Lu, lu, lu. lu. h/, ly, ly, ly, lie, lie, lie, M. 



Quio, didl li lulylie. 



Hagurr, gurr quipio ! 



Coui, coui, coin, and, qui, qui, qui, qui, yai, yui t gui, gui. 



Gott gott aoU gott guia hadadoi. 



Couigui, norr, IM diadia dUl si ! 



Ilezezezezezezezezezezezezezezezezc couar !io dze Jtoi. 



Quia, quia } quia, quia, quia, quiet,, quia, quia, ti. 



Ki, ki, ki, io, 'io, io, iijioioio la, 



Lu, ly li le lai la leu Io, didl 'io quia. 



Kigaigaigaigaigaifiaigaigaigaigaigai candor dzio dzio pi. 



If we could understand the sense of these words, we 

 should doubtless discover the expression of the sensa- 

 tions of this delightful songster. It is true that the 

 nightingales of all countries, the south as well as the 

 north, appear to sing in the same manner ; there is, 

 however, as has been already observed, so great a dif- 

 ference in the degree of perfection, that we cannot help 

 acknowledging that one has a great superiority over 

 another. On points of beauty, however, where the 



