242 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



unknown, but where it is greatly sought after as a 

 cage bird. Thus, in southern Germany the nightin- 

 gales have been decreasing for very many years and 

 are now generally rare and have been wholly extir- 

 pated in many parts. With us, too, the drain on the 

 species has been too heavy; it is, or has been, a 

 double drain — that of birds'-nesting boys and of 

 the bird-catchers. 



With regard to the first, there is unfortunately 

 no sentiment of superstition concerning the night- 

 ingale as in the case of his cousin, the redbreast — 

 "yellow autumn's nightingale," as it was beautifully 

 called by one of the Elizabethan poets. How effective 

 such a sentiment can be I have witnessed scores of 

 times when I have found that even the most thorough- 

 paced nest-takers among the village children are 

 accustomed to spare the robin, because as they say 

 something bad will happen to them, or their hand 

 will wither up, if they harry its nest. The nightingale's 

 eggs, like those of the throstle and shuffle-wing and 

 Peggie whitethroat, are taken without a qualm; 

 they are, indeed, more sought after than others on 

 account of their beauty and unusual colouring and 

 because they are less common. 



I believe that the increase of the birds each summer 

 would be about a third more than it is but for the 

 loss from this cause alone. 



The destruction caused by the bird-catcher is not 

 nearly so serious now as it has been, even down to 

 the sixties of the last century, when a single London 

 bird-catcher would trap his hundred or two hundred 



