[ 3°3 3 



on the fame fpot during the whole year, but happens 

 not to be attended to, from the reafons I have before 

 fuggefted ? 



I atn therefore convinced, that if I was ever to live 

 in the country during the winter, I fhould fee night- 

 ingales, becaufe I fhould be looking after them, and 

 I am accordingly informed, by a perfon who is well 

 acquainted with this bird, that he hath frequently 

 obferved them during this feafon *. 



If it be afked, why the nightingales are all this 

 time mute? the anfwer is, that the fame filence is 

 experienced in many other birds, and this very mute- 

 nefs is, in part the caufe why the bird is not attended 

 to in winter, 



I muft now aik thofe who contend for the migra- 

 tion of a nightingale, what is to be its inducement 

 for croffing from the continent to us ? a fwallow, in- 

 deed, may want flies in winter, if it Hays in Eng- 

 land; but a nightingale is juftVas well fupplied with 

 , infects on the continent, as it can be with us after its 

 paffage f. I mud alfo afk, in what other part of 



* I find they have alfo been feen in France during the winter., 

 See a treatife, intitled, Aedologue, Paris 1751. p. 23. 



f I have omitted the mention of a more minute proof, that this 

 bird cannot migrate from the continent, from the having kept 

 them for fome- years in a cage, and having been very attentive 

 to their fong. 



Kircher (in his Mufurgia) hath given us the nightingale's 

 notes in mufical characters, from which it appears that the fong 

 of a German nightingale differs very materially from that of an 

 Enp-Iifh one : now, if there was a communication by migration 

 between the continent and England, the fong of thefe birds would 

 not fo materially differ, as I may, perhaps, fhew, by fome ex- 

 periments I have made, in relation to the notes of birds. 



I have before mentioned, that Mr. Fletcher, who was embaf- 

 fador from England to Ruffia in the time of Queen Elizabeth, 



the 



