Introductorij 9 



and others ; while the night-jar, or goat-sucker {Gapvi- 

 mulgus), on equally silent wing sweeps along the wood's 

 edge, or lights beside the sheep in pen or pasture. 



With singing birds I am blessed. Summer and winter 

 the blackbird delights me with his bold lay ; the thrush 

 making music of a more scientific strain. The lark and 

 grey linnet also salute me throughout the diurnal hours, 

 mingling their notes in harmony with, those of the three 

 finches — chaff, bull, and gold — all of which nest in the 

 near trees and shrubberies. Among the humbler warb- 

 lers, I can detect the twitter of several species of tits, as 

 the blue, long-tailed, cole, and marsh ; but, though not 

 the grandest of bird melody, perhaps pleasantest to our 

 ear is the gentle trill of the robin, for he lets us hear it 

 throughout the chill winter-tide, when most of the more 

 ambitious songsters are silent. In spring, however, and 

 throughout the summer months, we have a wandering 

 minstrel, who pays us an annual visit ; and .while he is 

 with us, all our other feathered musicians, if not shamed 

 into silence, seem, at least, to feel their inferiority. For 

 he is primo-tenore, primo-basso^ soprano, contralto — 

 everything ! Need I say that this distinguished visitor 

 is the nightingale ? Though he gives his concerts chiefly 

 during the hours of night, and notably between mid- 

 night and morning, yet oft are we favoured with them 

 during broad daylight. In the early part of last summer 

 I more than once heard his matchless strain — meant, no 

 doubt, for his mate, the " prima donna," sitting on her 

 nest, and for the time silent — heard it in the afternoon, 

 with a bright sun shining in the sky ! Which gives 

 contradiction to the old song, — 



" The nightingale, I've heard them say. 

 Sings but at night, and not by day.' ' 



