NIGHTINGALE 51 



to the villagers, by the numbers of brickfields that have 

 of late years been established in the neighbourhood. 

 Their theory is that the Nightingale objects to the smell 

 of burning bricks. How far this may be true I leave 

 others to judge ; but the fact of their scarcity is, unfor- 

 tunately, undeniable." Mr. H. Lamb remarks that the 

 Nightingale is a " common bird near Maidstone. On 

 July 2, 1891, and again on the 8th, I heard the Nightin- 

 gale singing on the wooded banks of the Medway, above 

 Maidstone." It is included in the summer visitors to the 

 Mailing Valley and Higham by the Eev. C. H. Fielding. 

 It is common in the Stourmouth district, according to 

 Mr. G. Dowker ; and at Nonington, W. Oxenden Ham- 

 mond ; Dover, G. Gray ; Elmstone, Eev. W. B. Delmar ; 

 Walmer, Eev. A. Austen ; Dover, C. Gordon ; Folkestone, 

 H. Ullyett ; Dover, Plomley Collection. 



Mr. E. J. Balston notes : "On April 16, 1902, I 

 heard a Nightingale singing at 9.30 p.m., and one 

 singing on June 9 about 10 p.m. ; it struck me that its 

 notes were much softer and sweeter than when it first 

 arrived, and there was no ' jug -jug -jug.' I have heard the 

 Nightingale singing every hour of the twenty-four." 



Among the spring arrivals near Canterbury, Mr. D. F. 

 Warde, on April 15, 1906, says: "While walking in a 

 small wood with two friends I heard and saw a Nightin- 

 gale, but as I had only just come from town I cannot 

 state if it was heard earlier." 



The Nightingale was evidently kept back by the cold 

 weather throughout the spring of 1906, and it was not 

 until April 16 that the bird was heard near Maidstone, 

 and on April 23 at Bilsington Woods ; after these dates 

 they became general and in every direction. Bethersden, 

 by Captain J. D. Cameron ; plentiful about Orlestone, 

 Mr. E. T. Filmer. 



