[ 2 si j 
mw attended to than others is, that it lings in the 
night *. 
Hence Shakelpeare fays, 
“ The nightingale, if die fhould ling hy day, 
“ When every goofe is cackling, would be thought 
“ No better a mulkian than the wren.” 
The fong of this bird hath been defcribed, and 
expatiated upon, by feveral writers, particularly 
Pliny and Strada. 
As I mud own, however, that I cannot affix any 
precife ideas to either of thefe celebrated defcriptions, 
and as I once kept a very line bird of this fort for 
three years, with very particular attention to its fong ; 
I lhall endeavour to do it the bed judice I am ca- 
pable of. 
In the fitd place, its tone is infinitely more mel- 
low than that of any other bird, though, at the 
fame time, by a proper exertion of its mulical powers, 
it can be exceffively brilliant. 
When this bird fang its fong round , in its whole 
compafs, I have oblerved lixteen different beginnings 
and clofes, at the fame time that the intermediate 
notes were commonly varied in their fucceffion with 
fuch judgment, as to produce a mod plealing variety. 
The bird which approaches neared to the excel- 
lence of the nightingale, in this refpedt, is the Iky- 
lark ; but then the tone is infinitely inferior in point 
of mellcwnefs : mod other linging birds have not 
above four or five changes. 
* The woodlark and reedfparrow fing likewife in the 
night ; and from hence, in the neighbourhood of Shrewfbury, 
the latter hath obtained the name of the willow-nightingale. 
Nightingales, however, and thefe two other birds, fing alio in 
the day, but are not then diflinguiflied in the general conceit. 
7 . 1 he 
