[ 284 j 
referring its breath to fweli certain notes, which by 
this means had a moft aftonifhing eft eft, and which 
eludes all verbal defeription. 
I have indeed taken down certain paflages which 
may be reduced to our mufical intervals ; but though 
by thefe means one may form an idea of fome of the 
notes ufed, yet it is impoflible to give their compa- 
rative durations in point of mufical tune, upon 
which the whole effeft mu ft depend. 
I once procured a very capital player on the flute 
to execute the notes which Kircher hath engraved in 
his Mujhrgia , as being ufed by the nightingale; 
when, from want of not being able to lettle their 
comparative duration, it was impoflible to obferve 
any traces almofl: of the nightingale’s long. 
It may not be improper here to confider, whether 
the nightingale may not have a very formidable 
competitor in the American mocking-bird * ; though 
almofl; all travellers agree, that the concert in the 
European woods is fuperior to that of the other parts 
of the globe -f. 
As birds are now annually imported in great num- 
bers from Afia, Africa, and America, I have fre- 
quently attended to their notes, both fingly and in 
concert, which are certainly not to be compared to 
thofe of Europe. 
Thomfon, the poet, (whofe obfervations in na- 
tural hiflory are much to be depended upon) makes 
* Turdus Amcricanas minor canoru?. Ray’s Syn. It is 
called by the Indians Contlatoili ; which is faid to fignify four 
hundred tongues. See alio Catefby. 
f See Rochefort’s tfift des Antelles, T. I.p. 366. — Ph. Tr. 
Abr. Vo. 111 . p. 563. — andCatefby. 
this 
