BRAKE NIGHTINGALE. 327 



time, always seemed to me to partake of more elegance, as if 

 produced by the knowledge that the arrival of their partners, 

 and the season of song and love were at hand. An attentive- 

 ness to the notes of all the passing birds about them, I thought, 

 was very perceptible ; and when it propitiously happened that 

 one of them was produced by a female Nightingale, the males 

 would simultaneously fly with speed to the spot, and at once 

 seek for the fair one, which, by the way, I should say arrived 

 singly, and in the same manner as the male had done some 

 days previously. I moreover discovered that this species travels 

 altogether under night, and I believe singly, because, on seeing 

 these birds alight about day-break, I never observed more than 

 one at a time, although on several occasions I have seen one, 

 two, or even three, come towards the ground within the lapse 

 of half an hour or so, one coming after the other at the dis- 

 tance, as I should conceive, of from eight to sixteen miles. I 

 am also pretty well satisfied that in this species, as in many 

 others, the older males and older females reach their destina- 

 tions first, after which the others, according to their respective 

 strength of body. 



" The arrival of the Nightingale in the portions of the coun- 

 try of which I speak, varies by a full fortnight, according to 

 the temperature of the season, as I have observed some of them 

 on the 20th of JSIarch, and in other seasons not before the 5th 

 or 10th of April. 



" Many of my readers may think it strange that I should 

 say to them that I never heard a Nightingale sing on its arrival, 

 or before it was on the eve of being mated, when the first sight 

 of the female appears to bring forth its musical powers. On 

 the other hand, I have heard these birds in full song until within 

 a few days of their departure about the middle of August. But 

 this may possibly have been overlooked by students of nature, 

 who, having heard the song of the Nightingale at a very early 

 period, were not aware that at the same moment the bird had 

 already formed a nest, and its mate was snugly incubating. 



" About a week after the arrival of the female birds, the male 

 Nightingales first seen are mated, and a spot has been chosen 

 for the nest. The situations of their choice are generally in 



