The Zoologist — October, 1866. 419 



" You have learned * * * 

 To relish a love-song like a robin redbreast." 



Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. Scene 1. 



" Tis the next way to turn tailor or be redbreast teacher." 



Henri/ VI., Part I. Act iii. Scene I. 



Nightingale [Sylvia luscinia). 



Antony and Cleopatra, Act iv. Scene 8. 

 Midsummer Night's Dream, Act i. Scene 2. 



" It was the nightingale, and not the lark, 

 That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear ; 

 Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree ;* 

 Believe me, love, it was the nightingale." 



Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Scene 5. 



" Except I be by Sylvia in the night, 

 There is no music in the nightingale." 



Two Gentleman of Verona, Act iii. Scene I. 



" Here can I sit alone, unseen of any. 

 And to the nightingale^ complaining notes 

 Tune my distresses and record my woes." 



Id., Act V. Scene 4. 



To "record" refers to the singing of birds, and according to Donee 

 is derived from the " recorder," a sort of flute by which they were 

 taught to sing. 



" And twenty caged nightingales do sing." 



Taming of the Shrew, Induction, Scene 1. 



" Philomel, with melody 

 Sing your sweet lullaby." 



Song, Midsummer Night's Dream, Act ii. Scene 2. 



Among poets we frequently find the nightingale called Philomel. 

 Ovid, in his ' Metamorphosis ' (Book vi. Fable 6) tells us that Philomel 

 or Philomela was the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens, and was 

 transformed into a nightingale, while Progne, her sister, was changed 



* According to Steevens this is not merely a poetical supposition. " It is 

 observed," he says, " of the nightingale, that, if undisturbed, she sits and sings upon 

 the same tree for many weeks together ;" and Kussell, in his ' Account of Aleppo,' 

 tells us " the nightingale sings from the pomegranate groves in the day-lime." 



