[ 2 8o ] 
exactly the fame notes and paffages, which is by no 
means true, though it is admitted that there is a ge- 
neral refemblance. 
Thus the London bird-catchers prefer the fong 
of the Kentifh goldfinches, but Effex chaffinches ; 
and when they fell the bird to thofe who can thus 
diftinguiffi, inform the buyer that it hath fuch a note, 
which is very well underftood between them *. 
Some of the nightingale fanciers alfo prefer a Surry 
/ bird to thofe of Middlefex t* 
Thefe differences in the fong of birds of the fame 
fpecies cannot perhaps be compared to any thing more 
appofite, than the varieties of provincial diale&s. 
The nightingale feems to have been fixed upon, 
almofl univerfally, as the mod capital of finging 
birds, which fuperiority it certainly may boldly 
challenge : one reafon, however, of this bird’s being 
* Thefe are the names which they give to fome of the night- 
ingale’s notes : Sweety Sweet jug, Jug fweet , Water bubble , 
Pipe rattle , Bell pipe , Scroty , Skeg, Skeg , Jkeg, Swat fwat fwaty , 
TVhitlow whitlow whitlow , from fome diftant affinity to fuch 
words. 
+ Mr. Henfhaw informs us, that nightingales in Denmark are 
not heard till May, and that their notes are not fo fweet or va- 
rious as with us. Dr. Birch’s Hiftory of the Royal Society, 
Vol. III. p. 189. Whilft Mr. Fletcher (who was minifter from 
Q. Elizabeth to Ruffia) fays, that the nightingales in that part 
of the world have a finer note than ours. See Fletcher’s Life, in 
the Biographia Britannica. 
I never could believe what is commonly afierted, that the 
Czar Peter was at a confiderable expence to introduce finging 
birds near Peterfburgh ; becaufe it appears, by the Fauna Suecica , 
that they have in thofe latitudes moft of the fame birds with 
thofe of England. 
O . 
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