156 Silvia dee. 



Mr. Selby pronounces its song to be superior to that of the 

 Sedge Warbler, both in volume and in sweetness, but in truth it 

 requires a very accurate ear as well as eye to distinguish these 

 two graceful little warblers from one another. 



One of the specific names by which it is oftentimes designated 

 is strepera or ' noisy/ in allusion to the perpetual babble in which 

 it indulges. In the more marshy parts of England, where the 

 chirping of grasshoppers and crickets is not a very common 

 sound, this bird has long been known as the ' Reeler,' from the 

 resemblance of its song to the noise of the reel used, even at the 

 beginning of the present century, by the handspinners of wool. 

 The power of so-called 'ventriloquism,' ascribed by some to this 

 bird, has been in a measure explained by writers to be the effect 

 of the bird turning its head while singing, so as to change the 

 direction in which the sound of its voice is thrown.* In France 

 it is Bee-fin des Roseaux; in Germany, Rokrsanger, in ac- 

 cordance with our ' Reed Wren ;' but in Portugal, where its song 

 is more appreciated than with us, it is llouxinol pequeno decs 

 Cani$as, ' Little Nightingale of the Reeds.' 



49. NIGHTINGALE (Philomela luscinia). 



I need not point out the localities which these birds frequent; 

 for who does not know whether a nightingale haunts the thicket 

 near him, and who does not remember the spots where he has 

 listened to this wondrous songster of the grove, or as good old 

 Izaak Walton styles it, this ' chiefest of the little nimble musicians 

 of the air that warble forth their curious ditties, with which 

 nature has furnished them, to the shame of art' ? But the 

 nightingale seems very fanciful in her selection of habitation, 

 and is guided by some choice which we cannot fathom. In the 

 most western and warmest parts of our island it is rarely heard ; 

 and in our own county, while one wood resounds night after 

 night and year after year with their wondrous melody, a neigh- 

 bouring copse, apparently in all respects equally suited to their 



Professor Newton in fourth edition of Yarrell's ' British BirJs,' vol. i., 

 p. 385. See also paper by 0. Salvin in Ibis for 1859, p. 303. 



