68 INTRODUCTION. 



most active period of their mutual co-operation in the work 

 of procreation ; their songs are therefore neither unpoeti- 

 c.ally, nor perhaps untruly termed love songs. The Night- 

 l ngale is, it has been said, " silent till he has found a mate ; 

 his song at first is short and hesitating; he ventures not a 

 full loud swell, till he sees the female charged with the fruits 

 of his love. As soon as the female begins to hatch, she 

 ceases to sing, and soon after, the male becomes silent.' 

 Mr. Sweet informs me, that he has kept hen Nightingales 

 for two years in confinement, and that he never heard them 

 sing; the probability is, therefore, that they do not sing. We 

 want, however, more records concerning the natural history 

 of this Bird. 



The Nightingale's song has been generally considered, at 

 least by the poets, as a melancholy one ; and, from the occa- 

 sional fulness of its notes and the slowness with which some 

 of them are uttered, and when heard, too, in the nighty 

 there is assuredly, solemnity, if not melancholy, about it. 

 Notwithstanding Virgil's 



'* Qualis populed moerens Philomela sub umbra :" 

 and Milton's 



i( Most musical, most melancholy." 



Mr. Coleridge, in some beautiful verses, has endeavour- 

 ed to persuade us, that it is an 



«< Idle thought ! 

 In Nature there is nothing melancholy !" 



I am sorry to differ from Mr. Coleridge, but T cannot 

 assent to the assertion that, " there is nothing in nature 

 melancholy !" would that it were a truth ! nor can I agree 

 to call the Nightingale's a merry note. Whatever may be 

 the feelings of the Nightingale, we have of course no accu- 

 rate means of knowing them, there is great probability 

 that, when he sings, they are pleasurable ; but it does not 



