ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE NIGHTINGALE. 215 



one individual which, to use the technical phrase, had been deprived 

 of one of its Jins. It was marked in the ordinary manner upon the 

 under shell, which marks are well known to be indelible ; and in 

 the course of time it became a great favourite with the sailors, by 

 whom it was called the Lord Nelson. When the vessel arrived in 

 channel it was detained a long while by contrary winds, and a con- 

 siderable mortality took place among the Turtles, these dying one 

 after another so fast that, at length, it was resolved to cast the re- 

 mainder (including his lordship) into their native element, to give 

 them, as was said, a chance for their lives. Three years afterwards, 

 this same Turtle — with its three^^i*, and the marks of the hot iron 

 beneath — was found again upon Ascension Island." 



Under certain conditions, it is probable that Nightingales may he 

 introduced into new localities. — Upon the principle that birds of pas- 

 sage revisit annually their former haunts, it has been stated by M. 

 Bechstein, and so confidently that any reader might suppose it to 

 be a common practice in Germany, that " there is a means of peo- 

 pling with Nightingales some districts which ihey did not previously 

 frequent. It is only necessary," he observes, '' to bring up some 

 broods of young ones, and not let them loose the following spring, 

 till the period of return is elapsed ; because, being then no longer 

 incited by the instinct which induces them to travel, and the in- 

 stinct itself being, in a great measure, subdued by their imprisoned 

 education, they will not wander, but will remain and propagate, 

 provided they are not disturbed, and will return the year after with 

 all their progeny." The whole of this, however, has exactly the 

 appearance of shallow theory ; not a single fact is adduced in sup- 

 port of it. As I have already asserted, in the first place, the migratory 

 instinct does not dissipate in caged birds, at the period of the return 

 of their wild brethren ; and secondly, I know from long experience 

 that no duration of captivity tends, in the slightest degree, to abate 

 the force of this excitement. On the contrary, a Blackcap which 

 was presented to me after having been four or five years confined, 

 and which I afterwards kept for more than two years, died at last 

 from being absolutely w^orn out by the excess of this very impulse, 

 which affected it by day as well as by night ; and this is the only 

 instance I ever knew of a bird of this tribe exhibiting the migratory 

 feeling in the day-time. Still I believe that, within certain limitations. 

 Nightingales may, upon this principle, be introduced into new loca- 

 lities ; and I regret, for the sake of elucidating the subject, that the 

 experiment has not oftener been tried. I question whether they 

 could be thus located in Devonshire, in Wales, in Ireland, or in the 



