140 TREATISE ON 



their description, we conclude it to be the same. 

 As it is a wild, shy, and timid bird, it was with 

 considerable difficulty we obtained a sight of it. 

 We heard it fii'st among some low bushes, after- 

 wards in a sloe-bush, but, on our approaching 

 nearer, the warble ceased ; however, on our wait- 

 ing a little, we again heard the strain, and, looking 

 over a steep bank, where we thought the warbler 

 was, perceived it perched on the topmost branch 

 of a tree below us. We knew it to be the bird from 

 which the delightful melody came, both by the 

 direction of the sound and by the motion of its 

 little throat. It appeared to us much like the 

 hen blackcap, but darker and more of a brownish- 

 green colour. Though its notes are different from 

 those of the nightingale's, yet, in our opinion, it 

 falls little short of that bird as a songster. We never 

 had the nest of the pettychaps, and never saw the 

 bird nearer than what we have already stated. 

 We shall therefore close the account of this most de- 

 lightful song-bird, with what that eminent ornitho- 

 logist, the late Colonel Montagu, and Mr Bewick, 

 say of it. Colonel Montagu remarks ; — " Its song 

 is little inferior to that of the nightingale. Some 

 of the notes are sweetly and softly drawn ^ others 



