APPENDIX. VI. 



Hence Shakespeare says, 



" The nightingale, if she should sing by day, 



*' When eyery goose is cackling, would be thought 



" No better a musician than the wren." 



The song of this bird hath been described, and 

 expatiated upon, by several writers, particularly 

 Pl'my and Strada. 



As I must own, however, that I cannot affix 

 any precise ideas to either of these celebrated 

 descriptions, and as I once kept a very fine 

 bird of this sort for three years, with very par-- 

 ticular attention to its song; I shall endeavour 

 to do it the best justice I am capable of. 



In the fir3t place, its tone is infinitely more 

 mellow than that of any other bird, though, at 

 the same time, by a proper exertion of its mu- 

 sical powers, it can be excessively brilliant. 



When this bird smg it$ song round, in its 

 whole compass, I have observed sixteen differ- 

 ent beginnings and closes, at the same time that 

 the intermediate iv)tes wejre jcommonly varied in 

 their succession with such Judgment, as to pro- 

 duce a most pleasing variety. 



The bird which approaches nearest to the 

 excellence of the nightingale, in this respect, is 

 the sky lark; but then the tone is infinitely in- 

 ferior in pomt of ipellowness : mo3t other siiig- 

 ing birds have not above four or five changes. 



