2l8 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Northumberland, and there is a single record for Scotland — a 

 bird killed on the Isle of May in 1911. 



The Nightingale (Plate 90) is a large, handsome brown 

 Robin. A proud taxidermist, under the impression that he had 

 modelled a warbler, showed me two artificially drawn out 

 attenuated birds, faded to dirty grey, which for a moment 

 puzzled me ; they had once been Nightingales. It is only neces- 

 sary to watch the sturdy, well-built, bright-eyed Nightingale, 

 as it sits with head on one side examining the ground beneath, 

 to realise its relationship. It drops to the ground, flicks its 

 wings and dives at its quarry, warbles a few subdued notes, 

 elevates its tail, with darker central feathers like those of the 

 Redstart, throws over the dead leaves with spasmodic action 

 and dives into the undergrowth. Its home is the thicket, 

 tangled hedgerow and woodland undergrowth ; it occasionally 

 sings from a tree, but usually from hedge, bush or ground. No 

 bird has had more rubbishy sentimicnt lavished upon it than the 

 Nightingale; the very "fire and fervour" of its wonderful 

 song, an " impassioned recitative," is belittled by talk of melan- 

 choly and " melodious sorrows." Though purely its own, there 

 are characters in it suggestive of the varied phrases of the Song- 

 Thrush, the deep contralto of the Blackbird, the ripples of the 

 Garden-Warbler, the low call and shiver of the Wood-Wren, 

 and the sprightly outbursts of the Redbreast ; but it has what 

 Mr. Warde Fowler calls " that marvellous crescendo on a single 

 note which no other birds attempt." This, peiv^ pew^ begins 

 softly, but rising rapidly in volume and pitch, reaches a height 

 which, to the sympathetic listener, produces a thrill, an gk- 

 pectant catch of the breath. Then, in the midst of surpassing 

 music, comes a harsh croak — kur^ kiir, equally distinctive but 

 hardly musical. This croak is also the alarm note ; the call is 

 a soft wheet. 



The popularity of the song is due to the bird singing at night, 

 when most other songsters are silent, though many species. 



