188 A DESCRIPTION Of 
of our spring and early summer evenings, as it arrives in 
April, and continues singing till June, disappears on a 
-sudden about September or October, when it leaves us to 
pass the winter in the North of Africa and Syria. Its 
visits to this country are limited to certain counties, mostly 
in the south and east ; as, though it is plentiful in the neigh- 
bourhood of London, and along the south coast in Sussex, 
Hampshire, and Dorsetshire ; it is not found in either 
Cornwall or Wales. As soon as the young are hatched, 
the song of the male bird ceases, and he only utters a 
harsh croak, by way of giving alarm when any one ap- 
proaches the nest. Nightingales are sometimes reared up, 
and doomed to the prison of a cage ; in this state they 
sing ten months in the year, though in their wild life they 
sing only as many weeks. Bingley says that a caged 
Nightingale sings much more sweetly than those which 
we hear abroad in the spring. 
The Nightingale is the most celebrated of all the fea- 
thered race for its song. The poets have in all ages made 
it the theme of their verses; some of these we cannot re- 
sist giving: 
The Nightingale, as soon as April bringeth 
Unto her rested sense a perfect waking, 
Which late bare earth, proud of new clothing, springeth, 
Sings out her woes SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 
Beast and bird, 
They to their grassy couch, these to their nests, 
Were slunk ; all but the wakeful Nightingale ; 
She all night long her amorous descant sung. 
MILTON. 
And in the violet-embroidered vale, 
Where the lovelorn Nightingale 
Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well. 
MILTON. 
