VOICE A3STD SONG. 11 



certain birds, is ascribed to the possession of a greater degree of 

 nervous energy ; but there are difficulties in the way of such a 

 solution of this problem, one of the many which the practical 

 naturalist has yet to solve. Many attempts have been made to 

 express in words, or in the characters used in musical notation, 

 the varied strains of the feathered songsters ; but such attempts 

 have been, and must be, partially if not wholly, failures. BECH- 

 STEIN has taken great pains to spell out the different notes of the 

 nightingale, and set them down in their proper order of sequence, 

 dividing them into their separate strains, or strophes ; but let any 

 lover of the dulcet jargoning of that "sweet and plaintive Sappho 

 of the dell," look upon the following strange jumble of letters, 

 and tell us what resemblance the sounds which they express, 

 bear to the enchanting music to which he has often listened in 

 an ecstasy of delight : 



" Tiou,"tiou, tiou, tiou Spe, tiou, aqua Tio, tio, tio, tio, tio, 

 tio, tio, tix Coutio, coutio, coutio, coutio Squo, squo, squ6, 

 squo Tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzi Corror, 

 tiou, squa, pipiqui Zozozozozozozozozozozozo, zirrhading ! 

 Tsissisi, tsissisisisisisisis Dzorre, dzorre, dzorre, dzorre, hi 

 Tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, dzi Dlo, dlo, dlo, 

 dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo Quio, tr rrrrrrrr itz Lu, lu, lu, lu, 

 ly, ly, ly, ly, lie, lie, lie, lie Quio did! li lulylie Hagurr, gurr 

 quipio! Coui, coui, coui, coui, qui, qui, qui, gai, gui, gui, gui 

 G-oU goll goll goll guia hadadoi Couigui, horr, ha diadia dill 

 si! Hezezezezezezezezezezezezezezezeze couar ho dze hoi 

 Quia, quia, quia, quia, quia, quia, quia, quia ti Ki, ki, ki, io, io, 

 io, ioioioio ki Lu ly li le lai la leu Io, dial io quia Kigaigaigai- 

 gaigaigaigai guiagaigaigai couior dzio dzio pi." 



The French poet understood this matter better, when he said 

 of his mistress, that her name was the note of a nightingale, 

 which saying reminds us of the lines of an English child of song, 

 who describing his lady-love, averred that 



" Her thoughts were garlands of new tinted flowers, 

 Their utterance perfume." 



No, the melody of birds, like the fragrance of flowers, cannot 

 be described ; it must be listened to, and that by one whose 

 senses are properly attuned to outward harmony, by an in- 

 dwelling and abiding love of the beautiful and the pure in nature : 

 to him the sparing Lark will seem indeed to pour forth at heaven's 

 gate a morning hymn of praise, and the nightingale to chant, 

 amid the leafy woodlands, a vesper song of thankfulness : the 

 full chorus of feathered minstrelsy will be to him like an angel 

 choir, scattering melody on all around, which sinks into the soul 

 like summer ram into the earth, gladdening and refreshing it. 



