THE NIGHTINGALE. 
(,Philomela luscinia, L.) 
IS is the most famous of the warblers ( Syhnadce ), its song being 
celebrated both in ancient and modern poetry. Few birds 
possess a more splendid reputation, and few have a plainer 
dress. The Nightingale is rich brown above, with a reddish 
tinge on the tail ; the under parts are greyish-white, the bill 
and legs light brown. The bird is six and a quarter inches 
long. Both sexes have the same plumage, and might be passed 
over unnoticed amongst the tenants of copse and hedgerow 
by a careless eye. But the soul that has least music in its 
composition is immediately arrested when the Nightingale sings, 
especially if a tranquil, balmy night lends additional charms to 
the melody. The rapture, sweetness, and force of the strain is 
marvellous. We have listened for an hour at a time to the bird pouring forth burst 
after burst without intermission a few yards over our head, yet perfectly hid among 
the foliage, utterly indifferent to any one’s presence, possessed, as the ancients would 
have said, by a spirit of song. On reaching home, a mile away, in the grey dawn 
of the brief summer’s night, the bird’s song could still be heard, pealing forth 
strongly passage after passage of curiously intricate melody. It is a migratory bird, 
singularly averse to cold or to prolonged flights. For this reason it has been 
supposed that the Nightingale only crosses the Channel in spring at its narrowed 
part, the Straits of Dover, and then spreads out in the direction of a fan towards 
east, north, and west. The theory at all events corresponds well enough with the 
