52 THE BIRDS OP KENT 



Mr. W. Prentis says : " What would a country life be 

 worth in the south of England without the far-famed 

 Nightingale ? " 



In the Record of Summer Arrivals for 1905, pub- 

 lished by the British Ornithological Club — April 13, 1905, 

 Kentish Knock ; and May G, 1905, Kent is mentioned. 



Mr. A. G. Butler obtained the nest at Murston, in May, 

 1875. He remarks : "I have not seen the nest of this 

 bird for three years, yet I know it to be common in all 

 the woods between Heme Bay and Maidstone, and 

 probably all over Kent ; I have often heard as many as 

 five birds singing at a time. The Nightingale was very 

 common during the present year (1883), but I only twice 

 stumbled across the nests ; in both cases they were 

 normal in structure and position, but last year I found 

 the nest built fully 18 inches from the ground in a matted 

 bush of furze and brambles, near Sittingbourne, Kent. 

 About eight years ago I saw a nest without eggs in a 

 stunted hawthorn, nearly 2 feet from the ground, in 

 Heme Wood, near the village of Herne, Kent." 



Blue Eggs of the Nightingale. — " On May 22, after 

 half an hour's careful stalking and searching, I was 

 fortunate enough to find in a wood near Willesborough, 

 about 1^ miles from Ashford, a Nightingale's nest con- 

 taining five eggs, which were of a beautiful greenish-blue, 

 the same colour as those of the Whinchat, and minutely 

 spotted and speckled in a zone at the larger end, in the 

 same manner as those of the bird just named. On the 

 29th my brother discovered a second clutch of four eggs 

 of the same bird, within 30 feet of the first nest, the eggs 

 being of the same colour and marking. I find that Mr. 

 Miller Christy mentions this variety in his BircVs-nesting 

 and Bird-sMnning, but I believe they are anything 



