THE NIGHTINGALE. 177 



builds and breeds on the ground ; and generally rises into 

 the air to sing — its notes swelling as it ascends, and sink- 

 ing softly as it returns again to earth. Its strain is sweeter 

 even than that of the skylark, and is intensified by a touch 

 of pathos which is not recognized in the other. 



In this connection we may glance at some of the princi- 

 pal Song-Birds which inhabit Western Europe, without 

 troubling the reader with a scientific classification, though 

 most of them belong to the group of the Sylviadse, or 

 Warblers. 



By common consent the Nightingale is accepted as the 

 type of the sweetest and richest melody. " To sing like a 

 nightingale" is the highest praise we can accord to a human 

 vocalist. Both by the old as by the modern poets its 

 strain is eulogized as surpassing that of all other birds in 

 the harmony of its cadences and the variety of its modu- 

 lations. Yet, to look at this little brown bird, you would 

 never suppose it was so famous a musician. Its plumage 

 is absolutely without attraction, though the bird is grace- 

 fully formed and graceful in its movements. 



We cannot pretend to put before the reader the fanciful 

 or enthusiastic tributes to its skill and excellence as a 

 songster which have been paid by naturalists and poets, 

 by preachers and thinkers, ever since the day that man 

 first engaged in the study of Nature, and learned to ap- 

 preciate the goodness of the works of God. They may all 

 be summed up, perhaps, in quaint Izaak Walton's cele- 

 brated outburst, which evidently came from a full heart. 



" The nightingale," he says, " breathes such sweet music 

 (710) 12 



