BLACKCAP. 
31 
He has decidedly more compass and vaiiety than any other 
English hird except the nightingale : he begins with a soft 
low melodious whistle, like the voice of the nightingale 
heard afar off, or the whistle of a countryman at a distance, 
softened into melody by the surrounding hills ; it comes 
nearer and nearer, louder and louder, a series of varied, 
rich, liquid, and sonorous notes, till all at once you are 
astonished to find the little bird, from whose throat sucli 
surpassing melody is poured, is sitting in a bush by your 
side, or on the branch of a tree close over your head. But 
notwithstanding all the wildness and variety of the black- 
cap's song, there is a vast deal of method in it. It is quite 
worth while to listen attentively to him, and you find that 
his usual song is very tune-like, and might readily be imi- 
tated on the flute or flageolet. Sometimes, after he has 
gone through his tune several times in succession, he will 
introduce a few notes as from a march, and then all at 
once he will give you a delicious and ofi"-hand imitation of 
the song-thrush, blackbird, or even nightingale. 
The Nightingale accompanies the blackcap, or per- 
haps precedes it by a single day. I have seen or heard it 
on the 12th of April for many following years. The neigli- 
bom^hood of Godalming has been called the valley of night- 
ingales, and well it deserves the name : throughout the fine 
nights in May, there is a complete chorus of these birds ; 
every coppice contains numbers, and every garden two or 
three pairs : it is really glorious to listen to tliem in a 
moonlight midnight, after a showery day. There is a stile 
under Ockford coppice, at the back of the town, on which 
T have sat for hours, listening to the hundred-tongued har- 
mony, interrupted now and then by the sharp cry of the 
screech owl, as on noiseless wing he wound his way along 
