804 
SONGS OF BIRDS. 
of France and Germany might almost be unknown, so far as the poets 
are concerned. But the lark, the nightingale, the thrush, the black- 
bird, the linnet, the bullfinch, and many another sweet singer of green 
fields and green woods, have ever been the favourite theme of English 
poetry, from Chaucer to Tennyson. 
Let us refresh ourselves, while pausing here in the heart of Africa, 
with the lines in which an old poet commemorates the songs of birds: — 
" What bird so sings, yet so does wail? 
Oh, 'tis the ravished nightingale. 
' Jug, jug, jug, jug, teren,' — she cries, 
And still her woes at midnight rise. 
" Brave prick-song! who is't now we hear? 
None but the lark so shrill and clear ; 
Now at heaven's gate she claps her wings. 
The morn not waking till she sings. 
" Hark, hark! with what a pretty note • 
Poor Robin Redbreast tunes his throat ! 
Hark ! how the jolly cuckoos sing, 
' Cuckoo ! ' to welcome in the spring ! 
' Cuckoo ! ' to welcome in the spring ! " 
The day may yet come when the birds of Africa will receive that 
poetic consecration which has so long been the high privilege and good 
fortune of the birds of England. 
IN THE NILE VALLEY. — THE IBIS. 
Our survey now carries us to the Nile valley, that belt of verdure 
bordered by great tawny wastes of sand, and enriched by the waters 
of the classic river. The general character of its scenery is well known 
to every reader, so fi'equently has it been described by travellers and 
reproduced by artists. If we were to express it in a phrase, we should 
speak of it as " variety in uniformity." It is monotonous, and yet the 
monotony is not without colouring. To use a musical term, the domi- 
nant tone is everywhere the same, but it is relieved by rich harmonies, 
and, sooth to say, not a few discords. Were the monotony greater than 
it is, the traveller from the misty West would pardon it on account of 
the elasticity in the air and the glow on the sky, which stimulate the 
senses to the highest pitch of enjoyment. Then, all novel to him is 
