8 
BIRDS IN A VILLAGE. 
and made the place look more like a wood than a 
village, towered the great elms in rows and in 
groups. 
As I came to the place, I heard, mingled with 
many other voices, that of the nightingale ; and 
as it was for the medicine of its pure, fresh 
melody that I particularly craved, I was glad 
to find a lodging in one of the cottages, and to 
remain there for several weeks. 
The small care which the nightingale took to 
live up to his reputation in this place surprised 
me a little. Here he could always be heard in 
the daytime — not one bird, but a dozen — in 
difierent parts of the village ; but he sung not at 
night. This I set down to the fact that the 
nights were dark and the weather unsettled. But 
later, when the weather grew warmer, and there 
were brilliant moonlight nights, he was still a 
silent bird except by day. 
I was also a little surprised at his tameness. 
On first coming to the village, when I ran after 
every nightingale I heard to get as near to him 
as possible, I was occasionally led by the sound 
to a cottage, and in some instances I found the 
singer perched within three or four yards of an 
open window or door. At my own cottage, when 
the woman who waited on me shook the breakfast 
cloth at the front door, the bird that came to 
