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I don't know, bel - I always thought Johnny Weismuller's ululations as Tarzan were pretty wondrous. And melodious!
Could those be described as ululations?
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Carpal Tunnel
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That`s not what Jane said. After Tarzan ululated one to many times she ran off with the chimp.
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Cried wolf once too often, did he? What a howler. 
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1. Etymologically speaking, nightingale = night + yeller 2. yell = ululate (near enough) 3. "nightingale" is apparently not a species (surprised me, too) - just a motley bunch of birds that yell at night. 4. It follows that an owl [b}is a nightingale! 
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Pooh-Bah
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and one person's 'fish' is another's 'poisson'.
Don't you think un ouef is as good as a feast?
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Carpal Tunnel
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1. Etymologically speaking, nightingale = night + yeller
2. yell = ululate (near enough)
3. "nightingale" is apparently not a species (surprised me, too) - just a motley bunch of birds that yell at night.
4. It follows that an owl [b}is a nightingale!
What a delightful piece of etymological Jesuitry! Have you ever read Lewis Carroll's critique of a new belfry erected at his Cambridge college? It uses a very similar sort of reasoning on etymology. It's very short, but very funny. I'm sure he would approve of your sophistry.
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stranger
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Richard Feyneman (sp.?) the guy who discovered it was a faulty O-ring that downed one of our space shuttles, had this lifelong dream to go to Tuva and hear the Tuvans ululate. He died before the then-USSR government would give him permission. His assistant went there to honor the obsession, and heard 'em. I heard them in concert at Stanford U. with the Kronos Quartet a few years ago. The sound is not very melodic--it's more like a drone, as I recall. I think there is a recording if you are impelled to research further. Let me tell you--we poets lean on poetic license a lot in our search for the right words!
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stranger
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The California mockingbird is a nightingale. We used to have one who concertized every morning at 1:00 a.m. sharp. My husband swore he was singing "Figaro, Figaro!" Alas, he flew off to other climes.
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Sad to say, awaddle, I've never heard a nightingale  Well, not one of the opera-ululating variety, anyway. You could have taped Figaro, digitized him and put him on the Web somewhere! Actually I wouldn't be surprised if this kind of thing has been done already. Anyone out there know?
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etymological JesuitryMax, you definitely honour me too much by even mentioning me in the same paragraph as Lewis Carroll! But thank you.  No, I don't think I've seen his belfry critique - though I dimly recall seeing examples of his 'logic exercises', some of which were very clever and amusing. Any good Carroll compendiums out there?
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