THE NIGHTINGALE. 341 



tricts which the nightingale frequents, are familiar with 

 it ; but the manners of the bird, in a state of nature, 

 the only state in which the manners of any bird are 

 worth attending to, are not so well known. The 

 localities to which it is confined in England show that 

 it is a delicate bird, equally shunning the mountain 

 and the fen, as if the air of the one were too cold, and 

 that of the other too impure for it. It is strictly a bird 

 of the rich and well cultivated, but at the same time 

 well wooded champaign ; and even the valleys of 

 Devon, though among the sweetest as well as the 

 warmest in the kingdom, have no charms for the night- 

 ingale, nor is it heard upon the more arid parts of the 

 regions that it does inhabit. Lofty woods, by clear 

 waters, among rich meadows and fields, where there is 

 an exuberance of vegetation, and consequently an 

 ample store of spft and smooth caterpillars, are the 

 places for the nightingale. In these it sings its song, 

 rears its brood in the closest retirement, but with the 

 most tender and assiduous care ; and when it has 

 accomplished that, the grand object of its visit, it 

 retires with the same quietness as it came ; not flock- 

 ing with its kind before its departure, as some other 

 birds do. 



What may be the cause why the nightingale is so 

 confined in its locality in this country, has not been 

 ascertained, any more than why the range of the Dart- 

 ford warbler, which is a resident bird, should be even 

 more limited. It resorts regularly to countries that are 

 less rich, and climates that are colder than those places 

 of Britain in which it is never heard. Therefore the 

 only way in which it would be likely to obtain a solu- 

 2 G 2 



