1 7G BIRD-RETREATING. 



Sparrows; a pair of Jackdaws inhabiting the tower of one of the churches; 

 frequent flights of Rooks, careering round the cathedral spire; the spring 

 migration of Gulls, repairing to Scoulton for breeding; and a Song-Thrush 

 making melody in a central garden of the city. But when you rambled 

 even a short quarter of a mile beyond the city walls, you found an abun- 

 dance of songsters. Within this distance I knew a shrubbery and road, 

 where the Nightingale paid a yearly visit. 



In 1851, I heard one of these pleasing night warblers on the eve of 

 the opening day of the Great Exhibition; also on many successive nights; 

 but a youngster fired his gun in the dusky hour "for fun," but alas! to 

 frighten the Nightingale away, and the nest commenced (supposed to be- 

 long to this bird) was necessarily lost. I never personally met with an 

 instance of its nesting in Norfolk, though informed it has done so, and I 

 fully believe it; not on the authority of the case just mentioned, but be- 

 cause I possess a specimen of its eggs secured (for aught I know to the 

 contrary) in that county. I am of opinion that the Nightingale is ftir 

 from an unsocial bird; though we might thoughtlessly be led to suppose, 

 from its nocturnal habits, that it was; for it would not be difficult to base 

 on its retirement many qualities conjecturally. I do not state it to be a 

 tame, household bird, but that it is a creature less fearful (in its wild 

 state of liberty) of man than many. The Rev. F. 0. Morris, in his "British 

 Birds," says, "In its habits it is not shy:" my own observations convince 

 me this is true. 



When I was a boy at school, in a rural village of Essex, not far from 

 the metropolis, I remember how great was my pleasure in making my first 

 acquaintance with this bird. There were very large shrubberies and plan- 

 tations attached to the Hall, and the summer visitants were many. The 

 Gold-crested Wren, the Redstart, the Cuckoo, Magpie, and Wood Pigeon, 

 with many of the common birds, furnished me with my first specimens in 

 Oology. In a circular flower-bod, about four yards distance from the dining 

 room window, grew a small variegated holly, and the top of this dwarf 

 tree was the favourite haunt of a Nightingale. Night after night we heard 

 it, and lay awake, with as intense an enthusiasm to listen to its com- 

 mencing its song, and to gaze on the sweet bird in the moonlight, as if 

 the morrow were the herald of our vacation. In that bush it nested, not 

 three feet from the ground; and I obtained my first sight of a Nightingale's 

 egg. Alas! for our speedy disappointment and loss! The drawing-master 

 was accustomed to shoot birds, to obtain their skins for natural copies for 

 us, in pursuing our studies with him. One May morn he robbed us of 

 our Nightingale, though unintentionally, for firing into a thick clump of 

 hazels, he shot it, as well as a Linnet. The callow young perished. No 

 mate was retaken, nor were any proofs given (as far as my school-boy 



