SINGING AGAINST A THORN. 1 27 



And while her grief in charming notes express'd, 

 A thorny bramble pricks her tender breast. 

 In warbling melody she spends the night, 

 And moves at once compassion and delight." 



Thus it was evidently believed by the poets, whether the 

 idea was founded on fact or not, that the nightingale 

 leaned her breast against a thorn when she gave forth 

 her mournful notes. The origin of such a belief it is not 

 easy to ascertain, but we suspect Sir Thomas Browne was 

 not far from the truth when he pointed to the fact that 

 the nightingale frequents thorny copses, and builds her 

 nest amongst brambles on the ground. He inquires 

 " whether it be any more than that she placeth some 

 prickles on the outside of her nest, or roosteth in thorny, 

 prickly places, where serpents may least approach her?"* 

 In an article upon this subject, published in " The 

 Zoologist," for 1862, p. 8,029, the Rev. A. C. Smith has 

 narrated " the discovery, on two occasions, of a strong 

 thorn projecting upwards in the centre of the nightingale's 

 nest." It can hardly be doubted, however, that this was 

 the result of accident rather than design ; and Mr. Hewit- 

 son, in his " Eggs of British Birds," has adduced two 

 similar instances in the case of the hedge-sparrow. We 

 may accordingly dismiss the idea that there is any real 

 foundation for such belief, and regard it as a poetic 

 license. 



* "Sir Thomas Browne's Works" (Wilkin's ed.), Vol. II. p. 537. 



