368 THE NIGHTINGALE. 



artful, though perhaps less expressive strains, the desire to 

 entertain and please his mate, or to celebrate his victory over 

 some jealous rival of his happiness and fame. The various 

 passages fire interspersed with pauses, which greatly enhance 

 the effect of the following harmony. The notes already 

 heard are enjoyed again in the echo which hovers about the 

 ear, undisturbed by any new impression ; and if the admired 

 passage be not repeated, when the bird recommences her 

 song, it is replaced by another so beautiful, as to efface the 

 wish for the repetition of the ;first. One chief reason, in- 

 deed, as Mr. BAE.BINGTON remarks, why the Nightingale 

 surpasses all other birds in her song, is, that she sings in the 

 night, when her voice is not only at the highest pitch of 

 strength, but is rivalled by no other ; while she far excels all 

 other birds at any time, in the flute-like quality of her voice, 

 and in the uninterrupted duration of her warble, which some- 

 times lasts for twenty seconds. 



" The same observer enumerates sixteen different strains, dis- 

 tinguished by their closing syllables ; but in other respects 

 tastefully varied by the feathered performer. It is also ascer- 

 tained that the song of the Nightingale may be heard at the 

 distance of a mile, which is at least as far as the human voice 

 can reach. The possession of so powerful an organ by a bird 

 which hardly weighs half an ounce, is sufficiently striking ; 

 and it has been observed by HTTNTEE, that the muscles of the 

 larynx in this bird are proportionally stronger than in all 

 others, and stronger in the male than in the female. AEISTOTLE 

 and PLINY assert that at the time when the trees begin to grow 

 green, the Nightingale sings for fourteen days and nights un- 

 interruptedly. This must be understood to apply only to wild 

 birds ; and cannot be taken in a literal sense ; as they sing 

 both before and after the period mentioned, though not with 

 the same energy and spirit. They generally begin to sing in 

 April, and end in June, about the summer solstice ; though 

 the exact time at which their song ceases, is that at which the 

 young ones chip the shell, and the parent birds are warned by 

 an impulse of nature to provide for their nourishment. Night- 

 ingales in confinement sing for nine or ten months in a year ; 

 and their song is not only more constant, but more perfect ; 

 from which fact Mr. BAKRINGTON draws the first and probable 

 inference, that in this and many other species, the male does 



