50 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



for the road already referred to, I could not have failed 

 to have noticed it had there been more than one pair ; 

 besides, when the two birds entered a bush together the 

 notes of one only was heard to proceed from it. This 

 charming spot, although so retired, is not more than a 

 hundred yards from the raik-oad ; but I observed that 

 the passing train only caused a momentary cessation of 

 their song, and the shouting and screaming of some 

 children on the road did not even appear to be noticed. 

 Their flight is very buoyant, and they thread their way 

 through the hedgerows and bushes with surprising 

 facility, in a somewhat similar manner to that of the 

 Hedge-Sparrow, but then the wings are more expanded. 

 There is a small lake close to the wood, but so completely 

 shut in and fringed by the underwood, as well as over- 

 shadowed by the surrounding trees, that it would prob- 

 ably be unobserved by any less prying eyes than those 

 of an ornithologist or botanist ; in fact, it is a spot that 

 seems to combine everything that can make it desirable 

 as a breeding place, so, if undisturbed, they would doubt- 

 less remain in what is probably an old and favourite 

 haunt." 



Writing in the Zoologist, 1866, on the Birds Observed 

 at Bainliam in 1865, Mr. W. H. Power says: "I can 

 remember the time when this ' sweet songster ' was a 

 common bird enough, and almost every hedge and garden 

 had its pair of Nightingales ; but of late years, I am 

 sorry to say, they have become gradually scarcer and 

 scarcer. This spring I only heard two, and those only 

 for a few days on their first arrival ; they departed again 

 before attaining their full song, which I have always 

 found they take some days to perfect themselves in. 

 This unhappy decrease in numbers is caused, according 



