BULBULS. 
115 
shines from the depth of the clear sky with such intensity 
that the eye cannot gaze upon the dazzHng brightness of 
her face^ shedding down on plain and sea a flood of soft 
light sufficient to enable one to read an ordinary book with 
ease in the open air^ how sweety how rich^ how thrilling^ 
are the bursts of melody that rise from the trees around — 
the serenades of wakeful mocking-birds ! Nothing to be 
compared to it have I ever heard in England ; the night 
song of a single bird^ however fine may be its execution^ is 
no more to be put in competition with such a chorus^ than 
the performance of a single musician with that of a band. 
Nights so lovely are seen only in the tropics^ and the music 
is worthy of the night/^ 
In the Carnatic^ a large district of India^ the common 
Bulbul [IlmmatoTnis cqfer) is commonly kept caged^ as a 
fighting bird. Mr. Jerdon says it fights with great spirit> 
the antagonistic birds seizing each other by the red under 
tail-coverts and endeavouring to pull them out. The bird 
feeds chiefly on fruity and is often destructive to peas and 
other garden productions. Another species of this mu- 
sical genus^ the Jungle Bulbul [Haematornis jocosus), seems 
to deserve more than the former the honoured name of 
Bulbul^ associated with ideas of Persian nightingales and 
