As envisioned happening somewhere in Verona ca. 1597: early bird watchers….
Her….
It was the nightingale, and not the lark, that pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear. Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree. Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.Him….
It was the lark, the herald of the morn, no nightingale.Someone shoulda told Will that male nightingales do the singing. There’s lots more in Italy tho than there is in England tho. I never heard one, they barely reach the Southeast of England where the ones that do make it sing for maybe a month, tops. Mostly unmated males sing at night, in a bid to attract migrating females passing over.
The Skylark OTOH is part of the summer soundtrack from the British Isles, Scandinavia, Spain, Italy clear across to Siberia and Japan. Wherever there’s open ground. A familiar bird when I was a kid. The Wehrmacht could hear them while invading Russian, and they were a familiar sound around Battle of Britain airfields on both sides. All those famous Medieval battles? If it was spring or summer there were skylarks singing, same deal with the Mongols.
Skylark singing
