46 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



This species appears as abundant as in former days, 

 and the regularity in the time of arrival and departure 

 is only affected by the conditions of the weather. They 

 have a better chance of increasing in numbers by their 

 habit of remaining within the preserves and on private 

 property. 



Soon after the arrival of the Nightingales they rapidly 

 beconje distributed all over the county, and in some 

 places they are more abundant than others ; this may be 

 attributed to the greater supply of food and the best 

 situations for breeding. 



In 1792 Boys added the Nightingale to the Birds of 

 Sandwich. The Eev. J. Pemberton Bartlett, in his 

 Ornithology of Kent, 1844, says it is "abundant." 

 Among the arrivals at Shooter's Hill, Kent, Mr. M. 

 Hutchinson gives the following notes: "April 16, 1844. 

 The glorious Nightingales revisited their fatherland the 

 same night of April 15, but I did not hear them till the 

 18th, when I purposely betook myself to their shady 

 haunts. Early on Sunday morning", April 13, 1845, as 

 I sat in the wood musing on the sins and sorrows of the 

 city, compared with the innocent Arcadian revelling in 

 the luxuries of the ' incense-breathing morn/ 7s. a week, 

 a wife and ten fine children, a Nightingale darted close 

 by me into a furze thicket. There goes his red tail, and 

 now he returns thanks for bis safe arrival home, in what 

 the bird fanciers technically term ' the sweet jug-and- 

 water bubble.' Later in the day a shepherd boy heard 

 another Nightingale on the opposite side of the wood. 

 On April 27 the Nightingale trappers were out in the 

 woods in full force with their wives and children. I soon 

 heard the call of a Nightingale, saw him drop, down went 

 the trap, rush like madmen went the trappers to find 



