THE NIGHTINGALE 89 



and west of Russia the present species is a summer 

 visitor to Europe. It breeds somewhat sparingly 

 in North Africa, and is said to do so in Palestine. 

 Its winter quarters are in the Ethiopian portion 

 of the Inter-Tropical Realm. 



The Nightingale is neither a very early migrant 

 to the British Islands, nor a very late one, usually 

 arriving about the middle of April in the southern 

 counties and about a week or ten days later in 

 the northern ones. The male birds are generally 

 a few days in advance of the females, but song is 

 not resumed until the arrival of the latter. In 

 many of its habits, and in the haunts it frequents, 

 the Nightingale very closely resembles the Robin. 

 The actions of the two species are so much alike 

 that even a casual observer must quickly perceive 

 the birds' close affinities. In one respect, however, 

 the Nightingale loses by comparison, it is nothing 

 near so tame and confiding, loving more to skulk 

 and hide amongst the dense cover, and always 

 more fearful of observation. The favourite haunts 

 of the Nightingale are small woods, plantations, 

 marshy spinneys, the vicinity of hop-gardens, quiet 

 lanes, shrubberies and old-fashioned orchards. This 

 bird certainly shows a partiality for wet ground — 

 places in which food is plentiful. Nightingales 

 appear to migrate to their breeding-grounds in 

 companies ; and it is a fact of frequent occurrence 

 to find certain small plantations fuH of newly arrived 



