444 ANTIQUE NOTIONS. [CHAP. xiv. 



pected bird-catchers would make his appearance. Let 

 us halt a moment on this green wayside. From the 

 hawthorn thicket there bursts another full, liquid gush 

 of melody, powerful and yet plaintive. It is the wailing 

 tone which is so new to me. Virgil may well say of 

 him, " flet noctem," (he weeps the night through,) and 

 then add the " amissos fcetus," (the lost young ones,) 

 to make the picture consistent. It is a more imagina- 

 tive way of accounting for a mournful strain, than the 

 bodily suffering implied by the idea of the bird's lean- 

 ing against a thorn during his vocal performance. 



E.-A. Virgil is more sentimental than my fellow 

 townsman, Sir Thomas Browne. The Philosopher is 

 often a bit of a sceptic ; that is, he fears falling into cre- 

 dulity. He is bold enough to say, " Whether the 

 Nightingale's sitting with her breast against a thorn, be 

 any more than that she placeth some prickles on the 

 outside of her nest, or roosteth in thorny prickly places, 

 where serpents may least approach her, experience hath 

 made us doubt." 



C. I can now appreciate all that has been said about 

 the touching quality of the tone of voice. What has 

 most surprised me in my classical readings about this 

 bird, is its alleged sleeplessness. But I suppose it is 

 all fabulous. According to ^Elian*, "Hesiod says, 

 that of all birds the Nightingale alone abstains from 

 sleep and holds a perpetual vigil." He adds that 

 " the Swallow does not keep constantly awake, but 

 loses of its sleep the half ; and that they both pay this 

 forfeit in expiation of the crime perpetrated in Thrace, 

 that, namely, which occurred at their unhallowed meal." 



* Varia Historia, xii. 20. 



