[ 2d8 ] 



"Whence therefore can it arife, that this bird mould at one time 

 Ibe equal to the croffing of feas, and at other times not travel a 

 mile or two into an adjacent.county ? Does it not afford, on the 

 other hand, a ftrong proof, that the bird really continues on the 

 fame fpot during the whole year, but happens not to be attended 

 to, from the reafons I have before fuggefted ? 



I am therefore convinced, that if I was ever to live in the coun- 

 try during the winter, I mould fee nightingales, becaufe I mculd 

 be looking after them ; and I am accordingly informed, by aper- 

 fon who is well acquainted with this, bird, that he hath frequently 

 obferved them during this feafon l . 



If it be aiked, why the nightingales are all this time mute ? the 

 anfwer is, that the fame filence is experienced in-.rnany other 

 birds, and this very mutenefs is, in part, the caufe why the bird 

 is not attended to in winter. 



I rnufT: now aik thofe who contend for the migration of a nigh- 

 tingale, what is to be its inducement for croffing from the con* 

 tinent to us ? A fwallow, indeed, may want flies in winter, if k 

 flays in England ; but a nightingale is juft as well fuppiied with 

 infects on the continent, as it :can be with us after its pafTage u . 



I muff. 



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

 a treatife, intitled, Aedologie, Paris, 175 1. p. 23. 



u 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 Lngliih one : now, if 

 there was a communication by migration between the continent and Eng- 

 land, the fong of thefe birds would not fo materially differ, as I may, 

 perhaps, ihew, by fome experiments I have made, in relation to the 

 notes of birds. 



I have 



