iS6 Or J? Bird Friends. 



and the bird's unsurpassed merits as a singer, we 

 do not all love it. Xot long ago there was something 

 like a plague of Nightingales and Cuckoos in certain 

 parts of Surrey, and T heard the inhabitants say 

 hard things about them because of tlie fact that 

 they could not sleep for the "row'' tlic birds made. 

 T Avoiider wliat some of the older jioets would iliink 

 of the song of their sweet Philomel lHiii'_j- dcsi-iibid 

 as ;i " j-ow "' .' 



Stranger still, the keepei-s on a big g;n iie preserv- 

 ing estate in tile south ot' l-ji-laiid <b-^troye(l numb<'rs 

 oi Nightingales because tbcy laiicicd it disturbed 

 their Pheasants at niglit. 



Some naturalists ar<> ot' opinio »n that as male 

 Nightingales arri\-e in tbis count rv several davs 

 before the females, iliey siu'_;" during tlie liour^ or 

 darkness in order to attract ilic attention (.t' the 

 latter as tb<y fly overhead on their n(»rtb\vat(l 

 j'oin-ney, bm ibis tlic«»iy docs not acci.unt toi- tbc 

 ficl tlial tbere are parts ot tbc country populated 

 by tbc species and yet their song> are onlv beaivl 

 by day. 



Anotbcf curious thing ab<»ut tbis bifd is tbat 

 its (list ribui ion is |)L'culiarly limited, wilbout any 

 apparent, reason. It does not wander much bcy.md 

 llipon in Yorkshire in a noitbei-ii difcctiou. or tbc 

 Valley of the K\e in a western one. altbou-b there 

 is reason to bclic\c tbat it is slowl\- extending its 

 rang<'. Tbc inbabitants of Kirkwall, in the Orkneys, 

 claim to have heard it on at least one occasion. 



