SONG BIRDS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



piished that, the grand object of its visit, it retires 

 with the same quietness as it came ; not flocking 

 with its kind before its departure, as some other 

 birds do.* 



In their song the Nightingales have generally 

 been considered to surpass all the choristers of the 

 air. Their notes are exquisitely varied, soft and 

 harmonious, and rendered still more pleasing by 

 their being poured forth in the night, when the 

 other warblers are silent. They begin their song 

 in the evening, and generally continue for the 

 whole night. For weeks together, if undisturbed, 

 they sit upon the same tree. 



It is at those tender seasons, when the sun has 

 withdrawn his honest beams from us, and resigned 

 his dominion to the less brilliant luminary, the 

 queen-regent of the night, that the Nightingale's 

 song appears most sweet and enchanting. At 

 these delighful periods the mind is more especially 

 wooed to contemplation. Our thoughts appear 

 to be withdrawn from the external world as twi- 

 light spreads around us, and become centred in 

 our hearts. 



Now is the pleasant time, 

 The cool, the silent, save where silence yields 

 To the night-warbling bird, that, now awake, 

 Tunes sweetest his love-labour'd song.f 



The Nightingale sings likewise in the day-time, 

 though its notes are not so sweet or striking as 

 those uttered by the same bird at midnight. 



Most of the ancient, and indeed some of the 



British Naturalist. 



t Paradise Lost, b. V. 



