THE NIGHTINGALE: 
CONTINUED. 
THE hours of silence are not barren for the nightin- 
gale. He gathers his ideas and reflects ; he broods over 
the songs which he has heard or has himself attempted ; 
he modifies and improves them with perfect tact and taste. 
For the false notes of an ignorant master he substitutes 
ingenious and harmonious variations. The imperfect strain 
which he has learned, but has not repeated, he then repro- 
duces ; but made indeed his own, appropriated by his own 
genius, and converted into a nightingale’s melody. 
“Do not be discouraged,” says a quaint old writer, 
“if the young bird be not willing to repeat your lesson, 
and continue to warble ; soon he will show you that he 
has not forgotten the lessons received in autumn and 
winter—a fit season for meditation, owing to the length of the 
nights ; he will repeat them in the spring-time.” 
‘It is very interesting to follow, during the winter, the nightin- 
