344 SUMMER. 



call and answer. The call is as perfect, and the an- 

 swering as immediate, in the young pairs of the former 

 year, which can never before have heard the song, as 

 in those birds which are pairing for the last year of the 

 longest life. Neither is it the beauty of the song : the 

 common house sparrow never deserts her mate and 

 her humble nesting place in the cottage thatch, for 

 the melody of the nightingale and the majesty of the 

 forest ; and the chattering magpie, true to her partner 

 and her kind, is heedless of the song of the thrush and 

 the luscious whistle of the blackbird. 



The full song of the nightingale is always a song of 

 courtship ; and if there were any meaning in being sen- 

 timental upon the subject, it would be easy to blame 

 him as a " careless husband," because he never " sings 

 round" after pairing, except when he loses his mate, 

 and seeks for another. Thus all the fancies about his 

 having different trees near the nest from which he utters 

 different songs is not quite true. One can see a mean- 

 ing in the song before the pairing, but not so much 

 after, as the song of the nightingale cannot, like that 

 of the day birds, take the hawks out of the way of the 

 female and the nest. Still a portion of the song is 

 retained during the incubation, as a call-note; and 

 when one brood has been hatched early, there may, in 

 favourable seasons, be a second song, as in warmer 

 countries there are more than one brood in the season. 



After the nesting has begun, the male has other 

 occupations than singing. The nest itself is, indeed, a 

 very simple structure. It is upon the ground, under a 

 thick bush or hedge, or if upon a tree, it is on the 

 very lowest part of one that is branched down to the 



