174 TTIE FE.\TTrET!F,n TUIBER. 



return of tlie males In spiing always precedes that of the females hy seven or eight 

 daj-s, they sing before and after midnight, in order to attract their companions on their 

 journey during the fine nights. If their aims succeed, they then keciJ silence during the 

 night, and salute the dawn with their first accents, which are continued through the day. 

 Some persist, in their first season, in singing before and after midnight ; whence they 

 have obtained the name of nocturnal nightingales. After repeated experiments for many 

 successive years, I think I am authorised in affirming that tht nocturnal and diurnal 

 niglitingales form distinct varieties which propagate regularly ; for if a young bird be 

 taken out of the nest of a night-singer, he will in turn sing at the same hours as his 

 ftitlier, not the first year, but certainly in the following ; while, on the other hand, the 

 young of a day-nightingale wiU never sing in the night, even when it is surrounded by 

 nocturnal nightingales. I have also remarked tliat the night-singers prefer mountainous 

 countries, and even mountains themselves, whilst the others prefer plains, valleys, and 

 the neighbourhood of water. I will also venture to affirm that all the night-singers 

 found in the plains have strayed from the mountains. Thus, in my neighbourhood 

 (^Valtcrhausen, Saxonjr), enclosed in the first chains of the mountains of Thui-ingia, we 

 hear only night-singers : on the plains of Gotlm they know only the day-nightingale." 



This bird, according to the same authority, " is capable, after some time, of forming 

 attachments. AYlien once he has made acquaintance with the i)orson wlio takes care of 

 him, he distinguishes his step before seeing him ; he welcomes liim by a cry of joy, and, 

 during the moulting season, is seen making vain efibrts to sing, and supplying by the 

 gaiety of his movements, and the expression of his looks, the demonstrations of joy which 

 his throat refuses to utter. When he loses his benefactor, he sometimes pines to death ; 

 if he survive, it is long before he is accustomed to another. His attachments are long, 

 because they are not hasty ; as is the case with all wild and timid dispositions." 



This bird is said never to have ventured north of the Tweed : the poet Leyden 

 therefore feelingly laments — 



" Sweet bii-d I how long shall Teviot's maids deplore 

 Thy song, imheard along licr woodland shore!" 



Yet Douglas and Dunbar, though probably using only a poetical license, allude to its 

 song, in their descriptive poems. Sir J. Sinclair endeavoured to introduce this delightful 

 songster into the groves of Scotland. The eggs of robins, Sijlvialtuhccula, were exchanged 

 for those of the nightingales, and hatched and brought up by their foster-jDarents. The 

 young nightingales migrated at the usual time, Seiitcmber, but never rcturucd to tho 

 place of their birth. 



TIIE REED WARBIJLR.* 



The reed warbler, which has also been called the reed wren, and tlic niglit warbler, is 

 often confounded with the sedge bird, to which it indeed has considerable resemblance. 

 It is therefore worthy of special remark that the reed warbler may be distinguislied by its 

 having no light streak over the eye, which in the sedge bird is broad and conspicuous, 

 aTid tlic whole of the upper parts being of one plain olive-brown colour. Tlie rood 

 warbler is rather more than five inches in height, the sides being a little inclined to 

 rufous-brown ; the tail is cuneiform. 



This bird visits England in April, and leaves in September. Its song may frequently 

 be heard during the day, and occasionally also at night, and ^[r. Selby slates that its 

 song is varied and pleasing, but it is delivered in a huiried manner, liice that of the sedge 



* Sylvia Arundinacea. — Pcnn. 



