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Birds. 



thrush at No. 10, after the whole of the finches, the linnet, blackcap, 

 titlark, skylark and woodlark. I have added another scale of ray own, 

 Mr. Daines Barrington must have had a peculiar ear for music, although 

 I hear he was a good amateur musician. My selection contains ten 

 of the best singing birds in England, leaving out the minor songsters 

 in the scale. 



The Comparative Merits of Ten English Song Birds. 

 (The nearest to peifeclioii is represented by 20). 



Nightingale {Sylvia U(scinia). The nightingale among birds is, to 

 make a comparison, " Luna inter minora Sidera" and no wonder 

 that poets and lovers of birds have written so often on this matchles.s 

 songster. 



" Sweet bird, ihou sing'st away the early hours 



Of winters past. * * * 



What soul can be so sick which by thy song, 



Attired in sweetness, sweetly is not driven 



Quite to forget earth's turmoils, spites and wrongs. 



And lift a reverend eye and thought to heaven ? 



Sweet artless songster, thou my mind dost raise 



To airs of spheres, yea, and to angel's lays." 



Drummond. 

 The nightingale is remarkable for the curious circuit it makes in the 

 migration to this island, being confined to certain counties in England 

 and Wales. It seems that mild temperature has nothing to do with it 

 in one sense, as one was never heard singing in Cornwall and very 

 seldom in Devonshire, and only a solitary instance in that part of 

 Devon bordering on Somerset. They seem to be more numerous in 

 Hamp.shire, Kent, and all the counties near the metropolis, than else- 

 where. The line of demarcation taken by the nightingale has been 



