MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 235 



in the habit of going down those fields; and puss argued that she might 

 be there now, and hence had come hoping to meet her, that she might 

 give him his usual evening allowance. It may be impossible to describe 

 ■what instinct really is, but I think it scarcely can be denied that animals 

 do in some degree possess a certain power of reasoning. — Joseph B. Grant, 

 Oxenhope Parsonage, August 9th., 1856. 



I wish all correspondents would give the English name as well as 



technical one, of whatever plant or insect, etc., they may be writing 



about. It would be a boon to persons like myself who only know ^^the 

 beginnings" of natural history. — Idem. 



The Nightingale. — Having noticed some remarks on the sociability of 

 the Nightingale, in Mr. Twinn's very interesting article, which appeared 

 in the last number of "The Naturalist," I beg to offer the following 

 account of some facts relative to that bird, which came under my notice 

 in the spring of 1855, in the neighbourhood of Toubridge, in Kent. I 

 happened one day, while in the garden, to throw something into a low box- 

 tree which grew at the distance of about twenty yards from the house, 

 which was close to the high-road, when I was startled by a bird flying 

 out in that peculiar manner which is usually seen in the hen bird when 

 disturbed while sitting, and on going to the bush I found a Nightingale's 

 nest, containing four young birds, partly fledged, and one addled egg, which 

 last I removed. After this I paid daily visits to the nest for about ten 

 days, during which time I frequently observed the old bird sitting; when, 

 one morning, I found the nest empty, and I was half afraid that the 

 young birds had fallen a prey to cats or to hands less scrupulous than 

 mine; but as I afterwards saw a pair of Nightingales with several young 

 ones constantly about the garden, I doubt not that they were the same and 

 had merely left the nest sooner than I had anticipated. During this time 

 as well as afterwards, a Nightingale would generally remain during the 

 greater part of the day, as well as in the evening, singing most beauti- 

 fully, and without any sign of fear, on a branch of a Magnolia, (Mag- 

 nolia conspicua,) within three or four feet of a window, close to which my 

 brother was usually sitting. I may here observe that we had in former 

 years heard Nightingales singing night after night in some trees on the 

 opposite side of the road, and that I had found an empty nest the 

 summer befoi'e in the same bush where I now found the young birds and 

 egg, and one in a similar bush near the other, but had failed to recog- 

 nise them as Nightingales' nests till I saw that with the young and egg. 

 As we removed from Toubridge in the autumn of 1855, I have not been 

 able to ascertain whether they returned this year. — H. B. S., Kensington, 

 August 22nd., 1856. 



