SONG. 



fports and occupations, and admirably difplayed her imita- 

 tive and pifturefque powers, in awakening ideas of the 

 feveral feafons, and the rullic employments of each. 



Spring. 



The overture paints the departure of winter, and ap- 

 proach of fpring ; ploughing, fowing ; a prayer to iieaven 

 for profperity ; the youths and virgins going a Maying ; 

 chorus of thanks to the Supreme Being, in which is an ad- 

 mirable fugue, equal to the bed vocal fugues of Haodel. 



Summer. 



The overture paints the dawn of day ; the rifing fun ; 

 choral hymn to that luminary ; mowing, reaping ; a Ihady 

 retreat ; rural employments, and evening fports. 



Autumn. 



The fymphony indicates the hulbandman's fatisfadlion at 

 his plentiful harvell ; chorus in praife of induftry and la- 

 bour ; fruits gathered ; duet between an innocent fond 

 pair ; field fports ; hunting ; vintage ; dancing ; romping ; 

 finging ; revelling, and jubilation. 



Winter. 



The overture paints thick fogs at the approach of winter ; 

 horrors of winter ; diftrefs of travellers ; evening domeftic 

 amufemeiits ; purring of the wheel ; a narrative ruitic fong ; 

 moral refledtions on winter, fet to a fine air, cantabile ; fu- 

 ture rewards of a life well fpent, in the coro finale. 



Milton's Allegro and Penferofo, as fet by Handel, 

 which are all defcription, have not been injured by too ela- 

 borate mufic ; but thefe are not the fongs nor the mufic of 

 which we meant to trace the hiftory, when we began the 

 prefent article. See Air. 



Song of Birds, is defined by the Hon. Daines Barrington 

 to be a fucceflion of three or more different notes, which 

 are continued without interruption, during the fame interval, 

 with a mufical bar of four crotchets in an adagio movement, 

 or whilft a pendulum fwings four feconds. 



It is obferved that notes in birds are no more innate than 

 language in man, and that they depend entirely upon the 

 mailer under which they are bred, as far as their organs will 

 enable them to imitate the founds which tliey have frequent 

 opportunities of hearing : and their adhering fo iteadily, 

 even in a wild ilate, to the fame fong, is owing entirely to 

 the nelUiiigs attending only to the inltruftion of the parent- 

 bird, whillt it difregards the notes of all others that may 

 perhaps be finging round him. 



Birds in a wild tlate do not commonly fing above ten 

 weeks in the year, whereas birds, that have plenty of food 

 in a cage, fing the greateil part of the year : and we may 

 add, that the female of no fpccies of birds ever fings ; and 

 this is a wife provifion of nature, becaufe her fong would 

 difcover her neft ; and, in the fame manner, we may ra- 

 tionally account for her inferiority in refpeft to plumage. 

 The faculty of finging is confined to the cock birds ; and 

 accordingly Mr. Hunter, in didefting birds of feveral 

 fpccies, found the mufcles of the larynx to be ftrongcr in 

 the nigiitingale than in any other bird of the fame fize ; and 

 in all thofe indances, where he diifeftcd both cock and hen, 

 the fame mufcles were llronger in the cock. To the fame 

 purpofe, it is an obfervation as ancient as the time of Pliny, 

 that a capon does not crow. 



Some have afcribcd the finging of the cock-bird in the 

 fpring to the motive only of plcafing his mate, during in- 

 cubation ; nature, indeed, partly for this end, has given to 

 the male the power of finging : but the finging of a bird in 



Vol, XXXni. 



the fpring is more probably owing to the greater plenty of 

 plants and infedts, which, as well as feeds, are the proper 

 food of finging birds, at that time of the year. 



Mr. Barrington remarks, tliat there is no inftance of any 

 bird's finging, which exceeds our black-bird in fize ; and 

 this, he fiippofes, may arife from the difficulty of its con- 

 cealing itfelf, if it called the attention of its enemies, not 

 only by bulk, but by the proportionable loudncfs of its 

 notes. This writer farther obferves, that fome pafi'ages of 

 the fong, in n few kinds of bird:, corrcfpond with the in- 

 tervals of our mufical fcale, of which the cuckoo is a 

 ftriking and known mltance; but much the greater part of 

 fuch fong is not capable of mufical notations : partly, be.) 

 caufe the rapidity is often fo great, and it is alfo fo uncer^ 

 tain when they may (lop, that we cannot reduce the paffageal 

 to form a mufical bar in any time whatfoever ; partly alfo^ 

 becaufe the pitch of moft birds is confiderably higher than 

 the moll fhrill notes of thofe infiruments which comprehentj 

 even the greateft compafs ; and principally, becaufe the in- 

 tervals ufed by birds are commonly fo minute, that we can- 

 not judge at all of them from the more grofs intervals into 

 which we divide our mufical oAave. This writer appre- 

 hends, that all birds fing in the fame key ; and in order to 

 difcover tliis key he informs us, that the following notes 

 have been obferved in different birds. A, B flat, C, D, F, 

 and G ; and, therefore, E only is wanting to complete the 

 fcale : now thefe intervals, he fays, can only be found in 

 the key of F with a (harp third, or that of G with a flat 

 third ; and he (uppofcs it to be the latter, becaufe, ad- 

 mitting that the firtt mufical notes were learned from birds, 

 thofe of the cuckoo, which have been moil attended to, 

 form a flat third ; and moll of our compofitions are in a flat 

 third, where mufic is fimple, and confids merely of melody. 

 As a farther evidence, that birds fing always in the fame 

 key, it has been found by attending to a nightingale, at 

 well as a robin, which was educated under him, that the 

 notes reducible to our intervals of the oiftave were always 

 precifely the fame. 



Mod people, who have not attended to the notes of birds, 

 fuppofe, that thofe of every fpecies fing exattly the fame 

 notes and paflages, which is by no means true, though it is 

 admitted that there is a general refemblance. Thus the 

 London bird-catchers prefer the fong of the Kentifli gold- 

 finches, and EfTex chaffinches ; but fome of the nightingale- 

 fanciers prefer a Surrey bird to thofe of MidJlefex. 



The nightingale has been almolt uuiverfally reckoned the 

 mod capital of finging birds ; and its fupcriority, deduced 

 from a caged bird, confids in the following particnLis : its 

 tone is much more mellow than that of any other bird, 

 tliough at the fame time, by a proper exertion of its mufical 

 powers, it can be cxceflively brillinnt. Another point of 

 fupcriority is its continuance of long, without a paufe, 

 which is fometimes no lefs than twenty feconds ; and when 

 the refpiratiun became ncceffary, it has been taken with as 

 much judgment as by an opera-finger. The (Icy-lark in 

 this particular, as well as in compafs and variety, is only 

 fecond to the nightingale. The nightingale alfo fings, if 

 the exprtflions may be allowed, with fiiperior judgment 

 and tade. Mr. Barrington has obferved, that his iiiglitin- 

 gale, which was a very capital bird, began foftly like the 

 ancient orators ; referving its breath to fwell certain notes, 

 which by this means had a mod adonilhing eflfcft. Thi» 

 writer adds, that tlie notes of birds, whicli are annually im- 

 ported from Afia, Africa, and America, both fingly and 

 in concert, are not to be compared to thofe of Europe. 



T!ie following table formed by Mr. Barrington, agree- 

 ably to tile idea of M. de Piles in cdimating the merits of 

 Y y paintcr»j 



