ARTIFICIAL OR ARTICULATE LANGUAGE. g^g 



sive eftect. At length the sun is no more : the unbounded concert dies 

 away ; and the season of rest returns. It returns, but not with mute si- 

 lence ; for the night is soothed rather than disturbed by the solitary song 

 of the robin, now resuming his modest strain, and yielding in succession 

 to the peeress pipe of the nightingale, and the deep- toned but expressive 

 hoot of the owl. 



The note of the wren (motacilla Troglodytes) is as slender as its form, 

 but it is well worth noticing as being the only note of the feathered crea- 

 tion that is continued throughout the winter. During the season of frost 

 and snow it is, indeed, heard to most advantage ; for the fearless little 

 songster then enters the cosirt-yard, the stable, or the dairy, and seeks, in 

 confidence, his food of insects or their larves. It is this that constitutes 

 the little beggar's petition ; and where is the heart so hardened as to re- 

 fuse the request he then offers ? 



With respect to singing-birds, indeed, of all kinds, we may make this 

 pleasing observation, that, as though chiefly intended, in the general mu- 

 nificence of the great Parent of the human race, to captivate mankind, 

 they almost always reside in their vicinity, and are rarely to be found in 

 the uninhabited parts of the earth. 



But the vocabulary of the common cock and hen, is, perhaps, the most 

 extensive of any tribe of birds with which we are acquainted ; or rather, 

 perhaps, we are better acquainted with the extent of its range than with 

 that of any others. The cock has its watch-word for announcing the 

 morning, his love-speech, and his terms of defiance. The voice of the 

 hen, when she informs her paramour that she is disburdened of an egg, 

 and which he instantly communicates from homestead to homestead, till 



* The following passage from Dr. Jenner's very admirable paper " On the Migration of 

 Birds,'' has a passage so directly in accordance with these remarks, that I cannot avoid co- 

 pying it from the Phil. Trans, for 1824. 



*' We must observe, that nature never gives one property only, lo the same individual snb- 

 stance. Through every gradation, from the clod we tread upon to the glorious sun which 

 animates the whole terrestrial system, we may find a vast variety of purposes for which the 

 same body was created. If we look on the simplest vegetable, or ihe reptile it supports, how 

 various, yet how important in the economy of nature, are the otiices they are intended to 

 perform! The migrating bird, I have said, is directed to this island at a certain season of 

 the year to produce and reai its young. This appears to be the ^rand intention which na- 

 ture has in view ; but in cons«queace of the observation just made, its presence here may 

 answer many secondary purpo^ps ; among th- se I shall notice the following. The beneficent 

 Author of nature seems to spare no p?i3nsin cheerjijg the heart of man wiih every thing that 

 is delightful in the summer season. We may be indulged with the company of these visiters, 

 perhaps, to heighten, by the novelty of their appearance, and pleasixig variety of their notes, 

 the native scenes. How sweetly, at the return of spring, do the notes of the cuckoo first 

 burst upon the ear ; and what apathy must that soul possess, that does not feel a soft emotion 

 at the song of the nightingale, (srrely itmnst be "fit for treasons, stratagems', and spoils") 

 and how wisely is it contrived that a general sillnpss ahould prevail while ihis heavenly bird 

 is pouring foith its plaintive and melodious strains;, — strains that j,o sweetly accord with the 

 evening hour ! — Some of our foreiga visiters, it may be said, are ii]iharmoBious minstrelt;, and 

 rather distuKb than aid the general concert. !a the midst of a soft warm summer's day, when 

 the martin is gentij fioat'ng on the air, not onlv plei.siDg us with the peculiar delicacj of its 

 note, but with the elegance of its meandering ; when the blackcap is vying with the gold- 

 finch, and the linnet with the woodiaric, a J*»zer, swifts rush from some noighbouring battle- 

 ment, and set up a most discordant scrpaming. Yet all is perfect, 'i he interruption is of 

 short duration, and without it, the lonj;; continued warbiijig of the softer tinging birds would 

 pall and tire thfc listening ear with excess c: melody, as the exhilarating be^ams o*" the sun, 

 were they not at inttivais intercepted by clouds, vvould rob the heait of the^ayety they for 

 a while inspire, and sink it into languor, Tiiere is a perfect consistency in the order in 

 which nature seems to have directed the singing birds to fill up the day with dieir pleasing 

 harmony . To an observer of those divine laws vhich harmonize the general order of things, 

 there appears a design in the arrangement of this syJvan mirstrelsy. It is not in the haunted 

 meadow, nor frequented field, ws are to expect the gratification of indulging ourselves in this 

 pleasing speculation to its full extent : we must seek for it in the park, the forest, or s^om.e 

 sequestered dell, half enclosed by the coppice or the wood,"' 



