BRITISH BIRDS OF THE ROBIN KIND. 



tions, as well as high ground j and I think it will be found that their 

 song is generally more continuous, and not quite so loud as those which 

 sing only by day. I rather, however, hazard this last remark, as I 

 have not, as yet, observed it in a sufficient number of instances to 

 conclude that it is so invariably. 



On speaking to a bird-catcher on this subject, who sends every year 

 a considerable number of these birds to the London dealers, he informed 

 me that he had often noticed that, in many places, the nightingales 

 sang only by day ; that his house was situate between two woods, in 

 both of which nightingales abounded, but that he never remembered to 

 have heard them in the night excepting in one particular rising ground, 

 where, during the season, they might always be heard at all hours. I 

 employed this man to procure me one of these night-singing birds, and 

 he soon succeeded in catching one. He promised also to bring me some 

 nests and eggs of each, but these I have never received. The bird 

 seemed very different from another (a day-singer), which I had at the 

 time in confinement ; it was of a darker and more uniform colour, and 

 rather smaller than the generality of nightingales which I have seen ; 

 the tail, also, was shorter, and its attitudes, in general, more crouching. 

 It seemed of a remarkably tame and familiar disposition, and took to its 

 food much better than is usual with these birds when newly caught. 

 It died, however, about ten days after it was taken, and very much to 

 my surprise, for it fed heartily, was in good condition, and seemed in 

 every respect to have been thriving. The season at that time was too 

 far advanced for me to have thought of procuring another, and I was 

 compelled, in consequence, to postpone the further investigation of the 

 subject until another spring. These observations may, perhaps, appear 

 rather crude, as indeed they are, but I have been induced to offer them 

 in the hope of calling some attention to the subject. Possibly it may 

 yet be found that two distinct species of nightingale inhabit this 

 country, as similar, or even more so than the chiff-chaff and the willow- 

 wren, the distinctness of which no naturalist pretends to doubt. 

 Nothing, however, has been discovered as yet that can be said to con- 

 stitute any specific difference, and it is probable that the little diver- 

 sities which have been mentioned will eventually prove to be mere 

 accidental and individual peculiarities. The matter, nevertheless, is 

 worthy of further investigation, as marked varieties are extremely rare 

 among animals in a state of nature ; those which have been described 

 as such having, in almost every instance, been proved, by closer 

 research, to be in reality different and distinct species. 



