BOOK X. xLiii. 81-84 



XLIII. Nightingales pour out a ceaseless gush of Thenight- 

 song for fifteen days and nights on end when the buds ^"angeand 

 of tlie leaves are swelling — a bird not in the lowest variety o/ 

 rank remarkable. In the first place there is so loud 

 a voice and so persistent a supply of breath in such 

 a tiny little body ; then there is the consummate 

 knowledo-e of music in a sinjjle bird : the sound is 

 given out with modulations, and now is drawn out 

 into a long note with one continuous breath, now 

 varied by managing the breath, now made staccato 

 by checking it, or Hnked together by prolonging 

 it, or carried on bv holding it back ; or it is suddenly 

 lowered, and at times sinks into a mere murmur, loud, 

 low," bass, treble, ^^-ith trills, with long notes, modu- 

 lated when this seems good — soprano, mezzo, bari- 

 tone ; and briefly all the devices in that tiny throat 

 which human science has devised with all the elabor- 

 ate mechanism of the flute, so that there can be no 

 doubt that this sweetness was foretold by a con- 

 vincing omen when it made music on the Ups of the 

 infant Stesichorus.'' And that no one may doubt 

 its l)eing a matter of science, the birds have several 

 songs each, and not all the same but every bird songs 

 of its own. They compete with one another, and 

 there is clearly an animated rivalry between them ; 

 the loser often ends her Hfe by dying, her breath 

 giving out before her song. Other younger birds 

 practise their music, and are given verses to imitate ; 

 ihe pupil hstens with close attention and repeats 

 the phrase, and the two keep silence by turns : we 

 notice improvement in the one under instruction 

 and a sort of criticism on the part of the instructress. 

 Consequently they fetch the prices that are given rradein 

 for slaves, and indeed larger prices than were paid nigJuingaie 



345 



