16 CLASS AVES. 



habitual nourishment grows rare in the ^oods, they quit 

 them, both young and old, to approach green hedges, lands 

 newly ploughed, and gardens where it is more abundant, 

 and they then unite to it tender berries and fruits. Their 

 flesh then grows fat and delicate, and is much esteemed in 

 some places, especially in Gascony in France. But neither 

 there nor elsewhere, are they fattened for table as some 

 naturalists have asserted. 



The nightingale, has, of all other birds, a voice of the 

 greatest harmony, variety, and compass. Even the mocking 

 thrush, which some have set far above it, has been universally 

 pronounced by all, who have heard both birds, to be much 

 inferior, to hold at least but the second rank, among the 

 feathered songsters. The nightingale unites the talents of 

 all the singing birds, and succeeds in every style ; sixteen 

 diiFerent burdens may be reckoned in its song, well deter- 

 mined by the first and last notes. It can sustain the song 

 uninterrupted during twenty seconds, and the sphere which 

 its voice can fill is at least a mile in diameter. Song is so 

 peculiarly the attribute of this species, that even the female 

 possesses it, less strong and varied, it is true, than that of the 

 male, but as to the rest entirely resembling it ; even in its 

 dreaming sleep the nightingale warbles. What peculiarly 

 constitutes the charm of this bird is, that it never repeats 

 itself, like other birds ; it creates at each burden, or passage, 

 and even if it ever resumes the same, it is always with new 

 accents and added embellishments. In calm weather, in the 

 fine nights of spring, when its voice is heard alone, un- 

 disturbed by any other sound, nothing can be more ravishing 

 and delightful ; then it developes, in their utmost plenitude, 

 all the resources of its incomparable organ ; but from the 

 setting in of the summer solstice, it grows more sparing of 

 its song, it is seldom heard, and when it is, there is neither 

 animation nor constancy in its tones. In a few days, at this 

 time, the song altogether ceases, and v/e heai* nothing but 



