252 HISTOUY OF 



bird possessed of a persevering strain ; but though it is in fact 

 so with the nightingale in Italy, yet, in our hedges in England, 

 the little songstress is by no means so liberal of her music. 

 Her note is soft, various, and interrupted ; she seldom holds it 

 without a pause above the time that one can count twenty. 

 The nightingale's pausing song would be the proper epithet for 

 this bird's music with us, which is more pleasing than the warb- 

 ling of any other bird, because it is heard at a time when all the 

 rest are silent. 



In the beginning of May, the nightingale prepares to make its 

 nest, which is formed of the leaves of trees, straw and moss. 

 The nest being very eagerly sought after, is as cunningly se- 

 creted ; so that but very few of them are found by the boys 

 when they go upon these pursuits. It is built at the bottom of 

 hedges, where the bushes are thickest and best covered. While 

 the female continues sitting, the male at a good distance, but 

 always within hearing, cheers the patient hour with his voice, 

 and, by the short interruption of his song, often gives her warn- 

 ing of approaching danger. She lays four or five eggs ; of which 

 but a part in our cold climate come to maturity. 



The delicacy, or rather the fame, of this bird's music, has in- 

 duced many to abridge its liberty, to be secured of its song. In- 

 deed, the greatest part of what has been written concerning it in 

 our country consists in directions how to manage it for domestic 

 singing ; while the history of the bird is confined to dry receipts 

 for fitting it for the cage. Its song, however, in captivity, is not 

 so very alluring ; and the tyranny of taking it from those hedges 

 where only it is most pleasing, still more depreciates its impri- 

 soned efforts. Gesner assures us, that it is not only the most 

 agreeable songster in a cage, but that it is possessed of a most 

 admirable faculty of talking. He tells the following story in 

 proof of his assertion, which he says was communicated to hira 

 by a friend. " Whilst I was at Ratisbon," says his correspon- 

 dent, " I put up at an inn, the sign of the Golden Crown, where 

 my host had three nightingales. What I am going to repeat is 

 wonderful, almost incredible, and yet is true. The nightingales 

 were placed separately, so that each was shut up by itself in a 

 dark cage. It happened at that time, being the spring of the 

 year, when those birds are wont to sing indefatigably, that I was 

 80 afflicted with the stone, that I could sleep but very little ali 



