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APPENDIX. VI. 
Hence Shakespeare says, 
<< The nightingale, if she should sing by day, 
«© When every goose is cackling, would be thought 
“© No better a musician than the wren.” 
The song of this bird hath been described, and 
expatiated upon, by several writers, particularly 
Pliny and Strada. 
As I must own, however, that I cannot affix 
any precise ideas to either of these celebrated 
descriptions, and as I once kept a very fine 
bird of this sort for three years, with very par- 
ticular attention to its song; I shall endeavour 
to do it the best justice I am capable of. 
In the first place, its tone is infinitely more 
mellow than that of any other bird, though, at 
the same time, by a proper exertion of its mu- 
sical powers, it can be excessively brilliant, 
When this bird sang its song round, in its 
whole compass, I have observed sixteen differ- 
ent beginnings and closes, at the same time that 
the intermediate notes were commonly varied in 
their succession with such judgment, as to pro- 
duce a most pleasing variety. 
The bird which approaches nearest to the 
excellence of the nightingale, in this respect, is- 
the sky lark; but then the tone is infinitely in- 
ferior in point of mellowness: most other sing- 
ing birds have not above four or five changes. 
