350 
A HISTORY OF THE NIGHTINGALE. 
intimate, what is familiar to all practical observers, that birds of passage return 
to their former place of abode; and it further incidentally hints that the superb 
song of a Nightingale is formed while the bird is young, and that it cannot after¬ 
wards be improved. 
Mr. Sweet continues :— 44 A female that I had been keeping for six years, I 
also turned out along with him; this bird I kept four years, and it never attemped 
to sing; the fifth year it sang frequently, a pretty, soft, Nightingale’s note. I 
have found this to be the case with several female birds; they do not sing till 
they become aged; but it is not an unexceptionable rule, as I have had a female 
Willow-wren that sung when quite young.”—The father of Natural History, 
Aristotle, remarks, of the singing birds generally, that 44 some females sing like 
their males, as appears among Nightingales, but the female gives over song when 
she hatches.” Lord Bacon, too, observes 44 that the males, among singing birds, 
are ever the better songsters;” which is as qualified a statement as that of Buffon, 
to the effect that 44 the females are much more silent than the males, song being 
generally withheld from them.”— 44 In Nightingales,” says Montbeillard, 44 as in 
other species, there are some females which enjoy certain prerogatives of the male, 
and particularly participate of his song. I saw a female of that sort which was 
tame ; her warble resembled that of the male, yet was neither so full nor so 
varied ; she retained it until spring, when, resuming the character of her sex, she 
exchanged it for the occupation of building her nest and laying her eggs, although 
she had no mate.” Aldrovandus, however, in deducing lessons of morality 
from this bird, most gallantly observes that the female ought to be imitated in 
her silence by w r omen, who, 44 in his time, 5 ’ on the contrary, were (I must not 
venture to translate it) 44 loquaculce , argutulce , verbosce , dicaculce , linguaces , gar- 
rulce , et arcanorum minimce tenaces ///”—I have known an instance of a cage 
Song Thrush, a remarkably fine songster, which was accordingly always considered 
a male until it was two years old, when one morning an egg was found in its 
cage, and a day or two afterwards another. In some birds, as the Common 
Bullfinch, and Cardinal Grosbeak of North America, both sexes sing alike; but 
most generally, as in the instance of the common Linnet, the song of the female 
is weaker and less varied than that of the male. 
Concerning the longevity of Nightingales, Bechstein remarks that 44 in con¬ 
finement, after these birds have reached six years, they begin to sing less 
frequently, and with less brilliancy and ornament. A Nightingale,” he adds, 
44 may, by proper management, be kept in confinement fifteen years. I even 
know an instance of one attaining the age of twenty-five years in captivity.”— 
It is therefore impossible that he can be correct in assigning so early a limit to 
the full powers of this splendid vocalist. 
Mr. Salmon ( Naturalist , Yol. II., p. 52) records an instance of a pair of 
