Birds of Town and Village

Book Excerpt: glared round, and, catching sight of me close by, sprang back into the hedge and was gone. But all this time the exposednightingale, perched only five feet above the spot where the attack hadbeen made and the sparrow had so nearly lost his life, had continuedsinging; and he sang on for some minutes after. I suppose that he hadseen the cat before, and knew instinctively that he was beyond itsreach; that it was a terrestrial, not an aerial enemy, and so feared itnot at all; and he would, perhaps, have continued singing if the sparrowhad been caught and instantly killed.Quite early in June I began to feel just a little cross with thenightingales, for they almost ceased singing; and considering that thespring had been a backward one, it seemed to me that their silence wascoming too soon. I was not sufficiently regardful of the fact that theirlays are solitary, as the poet has said; that they ask for no witness oftheir song, nor thirst for human praise. They were all nesting now. Butif I heard theRead Mor