RECORDING. 1 29 



And later on — 



" How use doth breed a habit in a man ! 

 This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods, 

 I better brook than flourishing peopled towns : 

 Here can I sit alone, unseen of any, 

 And to the nightingale's complaining notes 

 Tune my distresses and record my woes." 



Id. Act v. Sc. 4. 



The word " record " here, refers to the singing of birds, 

 and, according to Douce, is derived from the recorder, a 

 sort of flute, by which they were taught to sing.* 



The " recording '' of young birds is indeed always very 

 different from their song, as is also the warble of old birds 

 after moulting, as Herr Bechstein has justly remarked. 

 " It is," he says, " a very striking circumstance, that birds 

 which continue in song nearly the whole year, such as the 

 redbreast, the siskin, and the goldfinch, are obliged, after 

 their moulting is over, to record, as if they had forgotten 

 their song. I am convinced, however, that this exercise 

 is less a study than an endeavour to bring the organs of 

 voice into proper flexibility, what they utter being pro- 

 perly only a sort of warble, the notes of which have 

 scarcely any resemblance to the perfect song ; and by a 

 little attention we may perceive how the throat is gradually 

 brought to emit the notes of the usual song. This view, 



* The "recorder" is mentioned in Midsummer Night ' s Dream, Act v. Sc. r, 

 and in Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 2. 



