The Nightingale and the Blackcap, 425 



brighter in the male; and at the same time it is extended 

 quite up the throat, which is not the case with the female. '^ 

 The Ring Dottrel [Charadrius hiaticula L.) is very numerotfl 

 in most of the islands; more particularly in the Island of 

 Sanda. They had all hatched their young when we were 

 there, which was from the 30th of May to the 21stof JuneJ^ 



wija 



Art. V. A Jew Remarks on the Nightingale and the BlacJccap. 

 By John F. M. Dovaston, Esq. A.M. Oxon., of Westfelton, 

 near Shrewsbury. 



" Which of two maidens hath the merrier eye." 



Shakspeare, 



Sir, 



Fully concurring with the sapient wag who says that 

 " comparisons is odorous," I premise that 1 intend " no offence 

 i' th' world " to either of these two delicate birds and most 

 delicious melodists ; nor presume to put them into competition 

 of taste or talent, by introducing them together ; for, like 

 honest Petruchio, though a gentleman, they " go but mean- 

 appareird ; " well aware they have other claims than their 

 clothes give, to gentility and genius. Though the night- 

 ingale visits, to some extent, the southern parts of this county, 

 he very rarely honours this north-western corner where I 

 reside, here, on the borders of Wales ; nor have I ever heard 

 him beyond the first range of our hills, though very near to 

 their southern sides. My enthusiastic friend, John Clavering 

 Wood, Esq., some twenty years ago, annually turned out two 

 or three pair, with the hopes they would breed, and their 

 young return, in the vast w^oody dingles about the Breidden 

 mountains ; but with no success. Among my copious, but 

 desultory and undigested, notes, I find the following, dated 

 June 14. 1812: — 



" I am told that the nightingale has not unfrequently been 

 heard in my neighbourhood ; but though, from earliest infancy, 

 I have ever been fondly and closely attentive to these matters, 

 I have but twice had this gratification here. The first, in 

 some meadows called the Links, just below my house, many 

 years ago ; but I was too young duly to appreciate the transient 

 strains, to which my ear was directed by my excellent father : 

 and last night, on my return from Oswestry, in some low- 

 ground, called the Rod Meadows. Many mistake the wood- 

 lark for this enchanting bird ; j[probably from the sole circum- 



