(as I obferved before) continue in fong above ten weeks.

The food of finging birds confifts of plants, infects, or feeds, and, of the two first of these, there is infinitely the greatest profufion in the fpring.

As for feeds, which are to be met with only in the autumn, I think they cannot well find any great quantities of them in a country fo cultivated as England is; for the feeds of meadows are deftroyed by mowing; in paftures, by the bite in the cattle, and, in arable, by the plough, when most of them are buried too deep for the bird to reach them.

I know well that the finging of the cock-bird in the fpring is attributed by many to the motive only of pleafing its mate during incubation.

Thofe, however, who fuppofe this, fhould recollect, that much the greater part of birds do not fing at all: why fhould their mate, therefore, be deprived of this folace and amusement?

The bird in a cage, which, perhaps, fings nine or ten months in a year, cannot do fo from this inducement; and, on the contrary, it arifes chiefly from contending with another bird, or, indeed, against almost any fort of continued noife.

Superiority in fong gives to birds a molt amazing afcendancy over each other; as is well known to the bird-carchers by the fascinating power of their call-birds, which they contrive fhould moult prema turely for this purpose.

But, to fhew decifively that the finging of a bird in the fpring does not arife from any attention to its mate, a very experienced catcher of nightingales hath informed me, that fome of these birds have jerked the inftant they were caught. He hath alfo brought to me a nightingale, which had been but a few hours in a cage, and which burft' forth in a roar of fong.

At the fame time, this bird is fo fulky on his firft confinement, that he must be crammed for feven or eight days, as he will otherwife not feed himfelf: it is alfo neceffary to tye his wings, to prevent his killing himfelf against the top or fides of the cage.

I believe there is no inftance of any bird's finging which exceeds our blackbird in fize; and poffibly this may arife from the difficulty of its concealing itself, if it called the attention of its enemies, not only by bulk, but by the proportionable loudness of its notes.

I should rather conceive, it is for the fame reafon that no hen bird fings, because this talent would be ftill more dangerous during incubation; which may poffibly alfo account for the inferiority in point of plumage.

I TRIED once an experiment, which might indeed have poffibly made fome alteration in the tone of a bird, from what it might have been when the animal was at its full growth, by procuring an operator who caponifed a young blackbird of about fix weeks old; as it died, however, foon afterwards,

and I have never repeated the experiment, I can only conjecture with regard to what might have been the confequences of it.

Both Pliny and the London poulterers agree, that a capon does not crow, which I fhould conceive to arife from the muscles of the larynx never acquiring the proper degree of ftrength, which feems to be requifite to the finging of a bird, from Mr. Hunter's diffections.

But it will, perhaps, be afked, why this operation fhould not improve the notes of a neftling, as much as it is fuppofed to contribute to the greater perfection of the human voice.

To this I answer, that caftration by no means infures any fuch confequence; for the voices of much the greater part of Italian eunuchs, are fo different, that they have no means of procuring a livelihood but by copying mufic, and this is one of the reasons why fo few compofitions are published in Italy, as it would starve this refuse of fociety.

But it may be faid, that there hath been a Farinelli and a Manzoli, whofe voices were fo diftinguifhedly fuperior.

To this I again answer, that the catalogue of fuch names would be a very short one and that we attribute those effects to caftration, which should rather be ascribed to the education of these fingers.

Caftration commonly leaves the human voice at the fame pitch as when the operation is performed; but the eunuch, from that time, is educated with a view only to his

Lib. x. c. 27.

future appearance on the opera ftage; he therefore manages his voice to greater advantage, than those who have not fo early and conftant inftruction.

Confidering the fize of many finging birds, it is rather amazing at what a distance their notes may be heard.

I think I may venture to say, that a nightingale may be very clearly diftinguished at more than half a mile, if the evening is calm. I have alfo obferved the breath of a robin (which exerted itself fo condenfed in a frosty morning, as to be very visible.

To make the comparison, however, with accuracy, between the loudness of a bird's and the human voice, a perfon fhould be fent to the fpot from whence the bird is heard; I fhould rather conceive that, upon fuch trial, the nightingale would be distinguished further than the man.

It must have ftruck every one, that, in paffing under a house where the windows are fhut, the finging of a bird is easily heard, when at the fame time a converfation cannot be fo, though an ani. mated one.

Moft people, who have not at tended to the notes of birds, fup. pofe that thofe of every species fing exactly the fame notes and paffages, which is by no means true, though it is admitted that there is a general resemblance.

Thus the London bird-catchers prefer the fong of the Kentish goldfinches, but Effex chaffinches; and when they fell the bird to those.

who

that they feldom fing any thing but fhort and loud jerks, which confequently cannot be compared to the note of a caged bird, as the inftrument is overftrained.

I must also here observe, that my nightingale was a very capital bird; for fome of them are fo vaftly inferior, that the bird-fanciers will not keep them, branding them with the name of Frenchmen*.

But it is not only in tone and variety that the nightingale excels; the bird alfo fings (if I may fo express myfelf) with fuperior, judgment and tafte.

I have therefore commonly obferved, that my nightingale began foftly, like the ancient orators; referving its breath to fwell certain notes, which by this means had a moft aftonishing effect, and which eludes all verbal description.

I have indeed taken down certain paffages which may be reduced to our mufical intervals; but though by these means one may form an idea of fome of the notes ufed, yet it is impoffible to give their comparative durations in point of mufical tune, upon which the whole effect muft depend.

I once procured a very capital player on the flute to execute the notes which Kircher hath engraved in his Mufurgia, as being ufed by

the nightingale; when, from want of not being able to fettle their comparative duration, it was impoffible to obferve any traces almost of the nightingale's fong.

It may not be improper here to confider, whether the nightingale may not have a very formidable competitor in the American mocking-bird t; though almoft all travellers agree, that the concert in the European woods is fuperior to that of the other parts of the globet..

As birds are now annually imported in great numbers from Afia, Africa, and America, I have frequently attended to their notes, both fingly and in concert, (which certainly are not to be compared to thofe of Europe.

Thomfon, the peet, (whofe obfervations in natural history are much to be depended upon) makes this fuperiority in the European birds to be a fort of compenfation for their great inferiority in point of gaudy plumage. Our goldfinch however, joins to a very brilliant and pleafing fong, a most beautiful variety of colours in its feathers.

It must be admitted, that foreign birds, when brought to Europe, are often heard to a great difadvantage; as many of them, from their great tameness, have certain

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