OBSERVATIONS Otl 
I' 8 8 
which by this means had a mod: aftonifhing ef- 
fect, and which eludes all verbal defcription. 
I have indeed taken down certain paffjges 
which may be reduced to our mufical intervals; 
but though by thefe means one' may form an 
idea of fomc of the notes ufed, yet it is impof- 
fible to give their comparative durations in point 
©f mufical tune, upon which the whole effect 
mud depend. 
I once procured a very capital player on the 
flute to execute the notes which Kircher hath 
engraved in his Mifurgia, as being ufed by the 
Nightingale ; when, from want of not being- 
able to fettle their comparative duration, it was 
impoflible to obferve any traces almoft of the 
Nightingale’s fong. 
It may not he improper here to confider, 
whether the Nightingale may not have a very- 
formidable competitor in the American Mock- 
ing-Bird ; though almoft all travellers agree, 
that the concert in the European woods is fti- 
perior to that of the other parts of the globe. 
As birds are now annually imported in great 
numbers from Afta, Africa, and America, I 
have frequently attended to their notes, both 
fingly and in concert, which certainly are not 
to be compared to thofe of Europe. 
Ihomfon, the poet, (whofe oblervations in 
natural hiftory are much to be depended upon) 
makes this fuperiority in the European birds to 
