A HISTORY OF THE NIGHTINGALE. 351 



Nightingales breeding in captivity, some of the young of which were reared; and 

 Bechstkin relates that — " It is said that a Nightingale and female Robin, turned 

 loose into a room, will sometimes produce hybrids ; but," he adds, " I have no 

 experience on the subject." A friend of mine succeeded in pairing a Nightingale 

 and Robin, which latter produced four eggs, but unluckily died, egg-bound, when 

 about to produce a fifth. I regret that these were not deposited in the nest of 

 some other species. 



In the wild state, the nest of the Nightingale, which is extremely difficult to 

 find, is most commonly placed on the ground, often against a bank, among the 

 fallen leaves of which it is principally or wholly composed ; sometimes, however, 

 it is situate in a heap of faggots or Pea-sticks, on a low stump, or in the centre of 

 a thick bush. Not uncommonly it is too frail to admit of removal ; but, m 

 general, it is not quite so loose ; and I have seen some constructed of dead but 

 undecayed Oak-leaves, stems, and a little Moss on the outside, which were 

 tolerably compact, indeed very much so. Others are built exclusively of skeleton 

 leaves, which usually (but not always) constitute the lining ; and they appear 

 to have been laid on wet, that they might adhere the better together. Occa- 

 sionally a small quantity of Horse-hair is added to the lining. The eggs are 

 from four to six in number (and not unfrequently these are not all hatched), of a 

 dark greenish or brown colour, which is sometimes broken into small spots, 

 commonly most numerous at the large end, which are of course darker on a lighter 

 ground than when they are uniform ; they vary considerably in size. 



The young are hatched after a fortnight's incubation ; and quit the nest very 

 early, as is the case with most other ground-building birds, while those that incubate 

 in holes, more particularly, remain much longer : both sexes warble to them- 

 selves, even before their tails are full grown ; and the young females generally 

 continue to do this, but in a weaker and more unconnected strain than the young 

 males, till the following spring, when they gradually leave off recording, as this 

 desultory mode of singing is termed by the bird-fanciers, while the notes of the 

 male sex rapidly increase in volume and loudness. The cry of nestling Nightiw- 

 gales is particularly harsh and disagreeable. 



In the Analysis of the Proceedings of the Academic des Sciences pendant le 

 Mois de Juin, 1836, there is a letter from M. Nervaux, in which he reports 

 that he has seen a pair of Nightingales remove their eggs from the nest, when 

 this was threatened to be inundated, and that the eggs, placed in a new nest, 

 were afterwards hatched. How the removal of them was effected — a matter 

 surely possessing its full share of interest — is not stated ; but we may presume 

 that the feet were the instruments of prehension. 



That assiduous observer, the late Col. Montagu, has ascertained that the 



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