San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-10-23
GARDEN OF THE NlGHTINGALES.
A French Gentieman's Strange But Mu-
steal Retreat.

A French Gentieman's Strange But Mu-
steal Retreat.
Those who live in the country, and
who take an interest in the birds and
other wild creatures about them, know
that it is possible to attract certain
wild visitors to a neighborhood or
definite spot by establishing there the
conditions which particularly suit them.
A single season may not suffice to at
tract any given sort of bird; but little
persistence will at last be rewarded with
success, for the wild creatures are vigil
liant in the pursuit of conditions favor
able to their development, and seem to
pass from one to another the word that
here or there worms are to be found, or
seeds, or sheltering bushes; and that
from this or that place their enemies or
pet ayersions are absent.
The nightingale is said to be peculiar
ly plentiful as we'll as peculiarly musical
in the Sierra Merena, a range of noun
tains in Spain. A French gentleman
whose experience is related by NJ. De
Cherville, a writer on out-of-door SUBJ
jects, had heard the birds sing there.
He was enchanted and went back to
his own estate in France, resolved to
make of it ga little Sierra Morena."
As the first step, he banished cats.
The cat is as great an admirer of the
nightingale as is the human European,
but its admiration is based on CASTRO
nomic instead of musical tastes. The
nightingale nests low, and sings long,
and is therefore easily found and
reached by cats. This gentleman did
well, therefore, to exile all cats from
his Sierra Morena." ...
His next step was to propagate worms
about the place. He had numerous spots
in his woods scratched thoroughly and
earthworms planted, and he left in
places where birds could get at them
an abundant provision of meal worms.
These and other devices recommended
by naturalists he resorted to deliberately
for two years without the least apparent
result; but in the spring of the third
year he was delighted to hear nightin-
gales singing in his woods. And there
after their numbers increased, until
the gentleman estimated with immense
satisfaction that ~ pairs of the birds
were breeding on his domain.
Every night for two months each year
he was made happy by the rapturous
songs of ''his" birds; and the estate be-
came famous in the country about as
the garden of nightingales." Hespent
so much time in listening to them that
he became familiar with their indi-
vidual songs-as anyone may who lis
tens much and attentively to the sing
ing of birds of almost any species; and
he named them ell after famous opera
singers whom The had heard and adj
mired.
Some years after a visit to this garden
of the nightingales, M. De Cherville
who tells it's story, met its proud pos
SCISSOR, from whom he had heard moth |
ing in the meantime.
"And how" said NJ. De Cherville, after |
tho greeting, sis your Sierra Moreno
Dow? Do the nightingales still visit |
it?"
II beg your pardon? ?" asked the gen.
tleman.
NJ. De Cherville repeated his question. |
The gentleman smiled sadly, and am
swered:
"Oh, they still come every year! But
do you know that nightingales age, like
the rest of us? My birds still sing, but
they don't sing nearly as well as they
used to. Their voices have grown
feeble; it is seldom that you will dis
in their warblings those deli
cate and at the same time full-toned |
melodies that once pleased you so
much!"
NJ. De Cherville sighed, too, for he had |
already noticed that his friend had
grown atrociously deaf.-Youth's Com
panion.