THE NIGHTINGALE'S TOWER OF SONG. 377 



has to put up witli tlie sccoiul-brst i)o.sition, tliougli perlinps still triiniipliin'' 

 in song over liis stalwart sun, from his new dominion, some tliirty or forty 

 yards from the old one. 



"The plianago of lioth sexes is very similar; a rich ferruginous light- 

 brown on the back, getting rather brigliter at the tail, while the general tone 

 of the under parts is a light silvery gray. Tiie nest is a slight but very pic- 

 turesque structure, composed of small twigs in the outer part, and with sub- 

 stances of a somewhat softer textuie in the interior, such as dry bents of 

 grass, stray horse iiairs, or other suitable materials. The eggs are about 

 the size of those of the iiedgc-sparrovv, but rather longer, being more oval in 

 form. Their color is a rich greenisji-olive, ratiicr darker and "reoner in 

 tone than ordinary brown paper, and they have no spots or markings of any 

 kind. The plumage of the A^oung bird is brown, mottled over witii liijhtish 

 ocln-eous spots, more or less regularly distributed. In general appearance 

 young nightingales so closely resemble yoinig roiiins, while still in their nest 

 feathers, that they are often mistaken for each otiier. 



"To conclude with a bathos, we are told by the Italian naturalist (quot- 

 ing Petrarch) , that a certain land-owner in the nortli of Italy got up one 

 nigiit, in tiic nightingale season, for the express purpose of destroying the 

 nocturnal annoyances which disturbed his rest ; and tiiat, not siicceedinn- in 

 extirpating the enemies of sleep in this manner, he proceeded to the extreme 

 measure of cutting down the woods to a considerable distance round his 

 Iiouse, which proved a more elFoctual defence against the intolerable nui- 

 sance. Still worse than this is the following : The nightingale, after the 

 close of tlie breeding season, having been well supplied with an abundance 

 of insect f lod during the summer, is in a very fine condition durinir the 

 month of .Se[)tember, — in fact, very plump and fit, — and his flesh ha\ ing 

 been tasted by connoisseurs at tliat season, and [)r(in()unccd fully cfpial to 

 that of tiie celebrated ortolan, thousands are eaptiu'ed in the south of France 

 (the country of the troubadours) as table delicacies. 



" The \igiitingale's Poweu of Soxg. — The great surgeon , John Hunter, 

 who left nothing uninvestigated within the widest range then known to his 

 professional pursuits, accounted for the extraordinary power of the nightin- 

 gale's song by the size and strength of the muscles of the throat, which he 

 found to be nuich more extensively developed than in any other singing 

 bird ; and tiiis unusual develo[)mcnt of the organs of the throat may account 

 for the traditions of talking nightingales. Pliny asserts, for instance, that 

 Drucus and Britaimicus, the sons of Claudius, liad nightingales that could 

 speak both Greek and Latin ; and that these birds might have been taught 

 by ingenious Greek trainers to utter a few phrases with tolerable distinct- 

 ness is exceedingly probable, as such traditions have always some founda- 

 NO. X. 48 



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