8 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



NIGHTINGALE, Daulias luscinia (Linnaeus). Although, as might 

 be expected, this premier songster has not yet visited the borough, 

 I have to put on record an undoubted instance of its occurrence in 

 Northumberland, in June, 1893, not more than some twelve miles 

 south of our limits, and within about half that distance, as the crow 

 flies, of the Scottish Border. 



It is no unusual thing for a Nightingale to be reported in the 

 newspapers, as having been heard, in this, or that locality, in the 

 northern counties, only upon investigation to turn out to be a Sedge 

 Warbler, or some other night-singing bird, which has been treating 

 the neighbourhood to an even-song, and has therefore been at once 

 put down as a Nightingale ; and it is perfectly marvellous upon what 

 slight foundation these stories sometimes rest. Being accustomed 

 to these paragraphs, I was in no way surprised to see it stated in the 

 local press, in the early part of June 1893, tnat a Nightingale was to 

 be heard singing nightly, in a wood near the village of Whittingham, 

 and that another had been heard near Elsdon, both places being in 

 Northumberland, and in the ordinary course of events, I should 

 probably have paid but little attention to the matter. Of the re- 

 ported occurrence at Elsdon, I heard nothing further, and cannot 

 therefore say how far that story may have been correct ; but happen- 

 ing to be a good deal in the Whittingham neighbourhood at the 

 time, and hearing of the Nightingale upon all hands, I walked over 

 to the wood, about midnight, on the evening of Sunday, the nth 

 June, and was no less astonished, than delighted to hear an un- 

 doubted Nightingale in full song. The bird sang from a low oak 

 tree, near the eastern corner of the large wood, at Whittingham, and 

 within a short distance of the village, and, late though the hour was, 

 there was still quite a little knot of people gathered together to 

 listen to the song. A footpath, from Whittingham to Callaly Castle, 

 skirts the wood at this place, and afforded an excellent opportunity 

 to every one to hear the bird without trespassing ; but the Earl of 

 Ravensworth, to whom Whittingham belongs, having heard of the 

 Nightingale, had given orders to have it strictly protected, and con- 

 sequently either the gamekeeper, or his son, remained on duty every 

 night. 



There could, of course, be no mistake about the song, but, in 

 order to place the record entirely beyond suspicion, I made an ap- 

 pointment with the keeper, and revisited the place with his son, on 

 the afternoon of the i3th, when I had the satisfaction of obtaining 

 a very near view of the bird itself, close to the spot where I had 

 heard it sing two days before. We remained near the wood for 

 some time, and I had a second excellent view of the bird, and thought 

 that I detected a pair of them, but of this could not be perfectly 

 certain. Layton, the keeper, told me that he had first heard the 

 song on the i4th of May, and that, almost nightly, a large number of 



