220 
RURAL HOURS. 
case ; the birds sing by daylight at least as often as they do at 
night, and of a pleasant morning or evening, one may hear a 
whole choir of them singing cheerfully together. It is said that 
they never move about in flocks ; this may be so, but they cer- 
tainly live in close neighborhood — a number in the same wood. 
In the months of May and June, at early dawn, just about the 
time when the market people and chimney-sweeps are moving 
about the streets of Paris, the nightingales are heard singing gayly 
enough, a dozen at a time, perhaps, in the very heart of that great 
city. They live in the maronniers, and lindens, and elms, among 
the noble gardens of the town, whether pubhc or private, and 
seem to mind the neighborhood of man as httle as the greenlets 
which flit about the plane-trees of Philadelphia. It is true, that 
at the same season, you may, if you choose, take a moonlight 
walk in the country, 
" And the mute silence hist along, 
Lest Philomel will deign a song 
In her sweetest, saddest plight." 
And probably this solitary song, owing partly to the moonlight, 
and partly to the stillness of night, will produce a much deeper 
eff"ect than the choir you heard in the morning, or at sunset. 
It is said that an attempt was made, some years since, to intro- 
duce the nightingale into this country, a gentleman in Virginia 
having imported a number and given them theif liberty in the 
woods. But they seem to have all died ; the change of climate 
and food was probably too great. They are delicate birds ; they 
are said to be very rare in the northern counties of England, and 
to avoid also the western parts of the island. Still, the nightin- 
