in medicine. See Medicine, no 329, and Noctambuli.

in law, are such persons as sleep by day and walk by night, being oftentimes pilferers or disturbers of the public peace. Constables are authorized by the common law to arrest night-walkers and suspicious persons, &c. Watchmen may also arrest night-walkers, and hold them until the morning: and it is said, that a private person may arrest any suspicious night-walker, and detain him till he give a good account of himself. One may be bound to the good behaviour for being a night-walker; and common night-walkers, or haunters of bawdy-houses, are to be indicted before justices of peace, &c. But it is not held lawful for a constable, &c. to take up any woman as a night-walker on bare suspicion only of being of ill fame, unless she be guilty of a breach of the peace, or some unlawful act, and ought to be found misdoing.

NIGHTINGALE, in ornithology; a species of motacilla. See Motacilla, and Plate CCCXV.

The nightingale takes its name from night, and the Saxon word galan, “to sing;” expressive of the time of its melody. Its size and colour has been described already under Motacilla: to which account we add, that its eyes are remarkably large and piercing; and though it is about equal in size to the redstart, it is longer in body, and more elegantly made.

Mr Hunter found, by dissection, that the muscles of the larynx are stronger in the nightingale than in any other bird of the same size.—Sibbald places them in his list of Scotch birds; but they certainly are unknown in that part of Great Britain, probably from the scarcity and the recent introduction of hedges there. Yet they visit Sweden, a much more severe climate. In England they frequent thick hedges, and low coppices; and generally keep in the middle of the bush, so that they are very rarely seen. When the young ones first come abroad, and are helpless, the old birds make a plaintive and jarring noise with a fort of snapping as if in menace, pursuing along the hedge the passengers.

They begin their song in the evening, and continue it the whole night. These their vigils did not pass unnoticed by the ancients: the flumbers of these birds were proverbial; and not to rest as much as the nightingale, expressed a very bad sleeper (a). This was the favourite bird of the British poet, who omits no opportunity of introducing it, and almost constantly noting its love of solitude and night. How finely does it serve to compose part of the solemn scenery of his Penserofo; when he describes it

In her saddest sweetest plight, Smoothing the rugged brow of night; While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke, Gently o'er th' accultur'd oak. Sweet bird, that shun'st the noise of folly, Most musical, most melancholy! Thee, chauntres, oft the woods among, I woo to hear thy evening song.

In another place he styles it the solemn bird; and again speaks of it,

As the wakeful bird Sings darkling, and, in shadiest covert hid, Tunes her nocturnal note.

The reader will excuse a few more quotations from the same poet, on the same subject; the first describes the approach of evening, and the retiring of all animals to their repose.

Silence accompanied; for beast and bird, They to their grassy couch, these to their nests, Were sunk; all but the wakeful nightingale, She all night long her amorous descant sung.

When Eve passed the irksome night preceding her fall, she, in a dream, imagines herself thus reproached with losing the beauties of the night by indulging too long a repose.

Why sleep'st thou, Eve? now is the pleasant time, The cool, the silent, fave where silence yields To the night-warbling bird, that now awake Tunes sweetest his love-labour'd song.

The same birds sing their nuptial song, and lull them to rest. How rapturous are the following lines! how expressive of the delicate sensibility of our Milton's tender ideas!

The earth Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill; Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs Whisper'd it to the woods, and from their wings Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub, Dilpotting, till the am'rous bird of night Sung spousal, and bid haste the evening star On his hill-top to light the bridal lamp. These, lulled by nigblingales, embracing slept; And on their naked limbs the flow'ry roof Shower'd roses, which the morn repair'd.

These quotations from the best judge of melody, we thought due to the sweetness of our feathered choir-riffers; and we believe no reader of taste will think them tedious.

Virgil seems to be the only poet among the ancients who hath attended to the circumstance of this bird's singing in the night-time.

Quatis populis marinis Philomela sub umbra Amisso queritur fatus, quos durus arator Observans nido implumes detrahit: at illa Flet nostrum, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen Integrit, et melius late loca quefibus implet.

Georg. IV. I. 511.

As Philomel in poplar shades, alone, For her lost offspring pours a mother's moan, Which some rough ploughman marking for his prey, From the warm nest, unfledged, hath dragg'd away; Perch'd on a bough, she all night long complains, And fills the grove with sad repeated strains.

F. Warton.

Pliny has described the warbling notes of this bird with an elegance that betokens an exquisite sensibility of taste, lib. x. c. 29.

If the nightingale is kept in a cage, it often begins to sing about the latter end of November, and continues its song more or less till June.—A young canary-bird, linnet, fly-lark, or robin (who have never heard any other bird), are said best to learn the note of a nightingale.

Mock-Nightingale. See Motacilla, fp. 8.

Virginian Nightingale, in ornithology, the common, but improper, name of a bird of the gros-beaked kind, called by authors the coccolibrastes indica criolota.

It is a little smaller than our blackbird; it has a black ring surrounding the eyes and nostrils; the beak is very large and thick, but not altogether so large as in the common gros-beak; and its head is ornamented with a very high and beautiful crest, which it moves about very frequently; it is all over of a very fine and lively red, but paler on the head and tail than elsewhere; it is brought to us from Virginia, and is much valued in England for its beauty and delicate manner of singing; it is very fond of almonds and the like fruits.

NIGHTSHADE, in botany. See Solanum.

Deadly Nightshade. See Atropa.—The berries of this plant are of a malignant poisonous nature; and, being of a sweet taste, have frequently proved destructive to children. A large glass of warm vinegar, taken as soon as possible after eating the berries, will prevent their bad effects.