Bishop Samuel Wilberforce was fond of riddles. After his death in 1873, this one was found among his literary papers:

I’m the sweetest of sounds in Orchestra heard,
Yet in Orchestra never was seen.
I’m a bird of gay plumage, yet less like a bird,
Nothing ever in Nature was seen.
Touch the earth I expire, in water I die,
In air I lose breath, yet can swim and can fly;
Darkness destroys me, and light is my death,
And I only keep going by holding my breath.
If my name can’t be guessed by a boy or a man,
By a woman or girl it certainly can.

No one knows the answer.

07/05/2013 UPDATE: A great many readers have sent me proposed answers since I posted this item. The overwhelming favorite is “a whale” (or “orca”); others include “a woman’s voice” and “a soap bubble.” The latter was favored by Henry Dudeney (in his 300 Best Word Puzzles) — he, like everyone, is confident of his solution:

“We have no doubt that the correct answer is that we gave (apparently for the first time in print) in the Guardian for 6th February, 1920. This answer is the word BUBBLE. It is an old name for Bagpipes, the word exactly answers every line of the enigma, though the final couplet may be perplexing. The explanation is that ‘Bubble’ is an old name for breast.”

By A. Hummel. White to mate in two moves.

A pilot is about to depart in his plane when he meets a young woman on the airport concourse. She has missed her flight.

“I can give you a lift if you like,” he says.

“But you don’t know where I’m going,” she says.

“It doesn’t matter. I can drop you off wherever you like and continue to my destination without going out of my way.”

This seems preposterous until he explains where he’s going. Where is it?

By Sam Loyd. White to mate in two moves.

William West noticed this inscription in an alehouse near Brighton. What does it mean?

By Richard Wright Johnson. White to mate in two moves.

By Henry John Clinton Andrews. White to mate in two moves.

Sort the numbers 0, 1, 2, …, 123456 into two sets. In one set put all the numbers who digits add to an even sum; in the other put those whose digits produce an odd sum. Which set is larger?

By Josef Kling. White to mate in two moves.

A logic exercise by Lewis Carroll — what conclusion can be drawn from these premises?

1. I despise anything that cannot be used as a bridge.
2. Nothing that is worth writing an ode to would be an unwelcome gift to me.
3. A rainbow will not bear the weight of a wheelbarrow.
4. Whatever can be used as a bridge will bear the weight of a wheelbarrow.
5. I would not take, as a gift, a thing that I despise.