More on the song-birds which are found in the farthest regions of the North

AT the head of these comes the nightingale which, as everyone must know, is a small bird with a charming song, its voice being more significant than its body. It will sooner sacrifice its life than give up singing in defeat, and it pours forth a wide variety of sounds, phrases which can be deep, shrill, high, and low, with modulations and runs. It will fly up to another nightingale which is singing, so that when it has silently taken instruction it may surpass its fellow. They challenge each other to contests as though they were competing on every type of musical instrument. ¹ In brief (as Pliny assures us in Bk X, Ch. 29) the nightingale has continued to express within its tiny throat every device which man’s artistry has conjured up with all the elaborate mechanism of flute-playing. There is no doubt that it was a convincing forecast of this melodious beauty when a nightingale sang at the mouth of the infant Stesichorus. In case anyone should be doubtful of its skill, he should know that each individual bird has many songs, and they are not the same for all nightingales, but every one has its own special repertoire.