136 OUR NATRTE SONGSTERS. 



" Her grief so lively shown, 

 Made me think upon my own." 



But, however the question of its sadness may be 

 viewed, all will agree that the song of the night- 

 ingale is the best and sweetest, that it has the 

 most variety, and the gi'eatest compass, of that of 

 any of the minstrels of the wood. Sixteen burdens 

 are said to be clearly reckoned in this song, which 

 are well determined by the first and last notes. 

 Nor docs this bird, like our other songsters, ever 

 repeat itself. It gives us something original at 

 each passage, or if it " resumes the same, it is al- 

 ways with new accents and added embellishments." 

 The editor of Cuvier's '' Kbgne Animal" says, 

 that the bird can " sustain the song uninterrupted 

 during twenty seconds ; and the sphere which its 

 voice can fill is at least a mile in diameter. Song 

 is so peculiarly tlie attribute of this species, that 

 even the female possesses it; less strong and 

 varied, it is true, than that of the male ; but as to 

 the rest, entirely resembling it; even in its 

 dreaming sleep, the nightingale warbles." 



It will, perhaps, rather amuse the reader to see 

 in what manner that good obsei-ver of birds, 

 Bechstein, describes, in written characters, the 



