Night Concerts of Birds. 321 



within a few feet of my bedroom window, and as my duties 

 also kept me from retiring till late, I had good opportunities 

 for observing. 



"I found frequently that when the song was long con- 

 tinued, and the nightingales numerous, other birds gave 

 evidence of unrest ; but, on many occasions, when the 

 nightingales' tones were prolonged till twelve or one o'clock, 

 especially on nights of great brilliancy, the moon being 

 near the full, all the songsters joined in, and a concert of 

 great power took place for about twenty minutes. In some 

 cases there must have been hundreds of birds over scores 

 of acres singing at the same time. 



" About '83 I heard a similar night concert at Lee Woods, 

 opposite Clifton Downs. Contrary to usual idea, night- 

 ingales are not rare in some parts of Devon, and within the 

 last two years I have repeatedly heard their songs. I could 

 distinguish the singing of from five- or seven to eight birds 

 end in one of these general night-concerts of various singing- 

 birds. One of these took place in '89 ; it began at n. 10, 

 and lasted, with some intervals, three-quarters of an hour. 

 This is the earliest I have heard. The latest was about four 

 in the morning. I have never heard the singing-birds give 

 such concerted masses of sound by day. — Yours truly, 



"T. Mann Jones, F.G.S." 



In replying to this letter, I mentioned that the sentence 

 which Mr. Mann Jones has quoted was meant to lead up to 

 a reference to that legend of Sultan Solyman the Magnifi- 

 cent (supplied in the foregoing -chapter), which represents 

 the birds as coming to him and claiming his aid on their 

 behalf against the nightingale for disturbing their slumbers 

 by his notes during night, so that they could not from 

 weariness sing so sweetly through the day as otherwise they 

 would do. Of course £he Sultan's decision was that he 

 could not silence the nightingale to procure unbroken sleep 



for the birds. 



X 



