CHAPTER VI. 



THE NIGHTINGALE. 



Philomela, or the Nightingale, is the head of the somewhat 

 large bird-family of Warblers, and is the most renowned of all 

 feathered songsters, though some judges think the garden- 

 ousel exceeds it in mellowness, and the thrush in compass of 

 voice, but that, in every other respect, it excels them all. For 

 my part, however, I think no singing-bird is equal to it ; and 

 listening to it when in full song, in the stillness of a summer's 

 night, am ready to say with good old Izaak Walton : — 



" The nightingale, another of my airy creatures, breathes 

 such sweet music out of her little instrumental throat, that it 

 might make mankind to think that miracles had not ceased. 

 He that at midnight, when the weary labourer sleeps securely, 

 should hear, as I have very often heard, the clear airs, the 

 sweet descants, the natural rising and falling, the doubling and 

 redoubling of her voice, might well be lifted above earth and 

 say, ' Lord, what music hast Thou provided for the saints in 

 heaven, when Thou affordest bad men such music on earth !' " 



In colour, the upper parts of the nightingale are of a rich 

 brown ; the tail of a reddish tint ; the throat and underparts of 

 the body, greyish-white; the neck and breast, grey ; the bill and 

 legs, light brown. Its size is about that of the garden warblers. 



