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CHAP. XLVI.
Of the Nightingale.
WE will make our choice of the Nightingale in the first place, which accor∣ding to the iudgement and common consent of euery one, singeth the most sweetly and melodiously of all the rest: she is a bird sufficiently knowne, especially in the countrie of Italy, and is called of the Latins Luscini•• or Philomel••: she maketh he•• nest in the Spring, at such time as the earth in the moneth of May, is all ouer couered, beset and hanged with flowers and pleasant greene, and that in groues and thicke bushes, vpon which the Sunne in the morning doth cast his coole and temperate beames: from noone till Sun-set, she 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the coole places, fountaines, brookes, thicke hedges, and well shadowed places. True it is, that some of them do make their nests vpon the ground, vnder hedges, or amongst the waste grounds: and other some of them make it in a place somewhat raised, as vpon some greene and thicke grasse growne, clod of earth or butte. The number of their egges is vncertaine, for some of them lay foure, and some fiue, and those which nestle in Summer, lay (according to Aristotle his assertion) sometimes sixe or seuen. Now the Nightingale which you would keepe, must bee bred in the Spring; for how much the earlier bird she is, by so much will she become the more perfect, and you may haue better hope and assurance of her longer liuing, and of her being brought vp, and kept with more ease, because that comming (as all are woon••) to mue her feathers, if she bee ouerrun of certaine cattle in August, the cold comming and finding her bare of feathers, causeth her to die, which thing happeneth vnto ma∣ny of those which were bred in Summer. The young Nightingales must not be ta∣ken from their nests, vntill such time as they be feathered, and that they bee almost couered all ouer with the same, that so you may haue the les••e trouble in bringing of them vp, keeping them in a solitarie and by-place: their meate must be the heart of a Weather cleane and old. And you shall make of the fat of the skinne, which co∣uereth the heart, and of certaine sinewes which are within the same, cut and shred small into little pe••ces, meate in manner of wormes, wherewith you shall feed them once euery houre, or more oftner if need require, giuing them at each seuerall time three gobbets: and thus you shall feed them in their nests as long as you can, and af∣ter they be growne vp, you shall put them in cages, made fit with little stickes and pearches, to the end they may begin of themselues to stand vpon their legs: and within the said cages, you must put mosse, hay, or chaffe, whereupon they may rest themselues, if so be they will not sit vpon the pearches, alwaies taking heed to keepe them cleane as much as may be. It will be requisite also, that their cage haue not any light but on one side onely, and for this cause, such as are most carefull, do hang their cage for the space of three whole parts of it with greene cloth. When you know that the Nightingale ca••eth alone, you shall mince her the heart of a Weather very small, after the manner of pie meate, and lay it vpon some small paper, in such pla∣ces, as where you know that she may feed easily, and without any trouble, you shall vse this care and diligence vntill the bird hath go•• the custome to eate alone, not neg∣lecting notwithstanding to giue her sometimes a day as much as a bird carrieth 〈◊〉〈◊〉 her bill to be the surer and for the better: take order likewise least she die, that shee neuer want any of the foresaid meate, and withall that it stinke not, as it falleth out oftentimes in Summer. Besides the heart of the Weather, you may giue her diuers other sorts of meat, as the paste whereof we will speake hereafter for one: or in steed of that paste, take a new egge (for else it might cause some disease to breed in her, and bring her easily to her death) boile it hard, giue her the yelke to eate. It is true, that you must not giue it her oft, or not at all, except it be for want of their meat, because it is giuen to bind them in their bodies, and make them continue. You may likewise