328 PHILOMELA LUSCINIA. 



the interior of close thickets, but not unfrequently also at the 

 roots of the thick sets of hedge-rows. I never saw one either 

 in a bush, or on a tree of any sort. The colour of the mate- 

 rials employed in the composition of the nest, and even that 

 of the eggs, are in accordance with the dull reddish-brown garb 

 of the bird itself. The whole of this fabric may be said to 

 be of a rather rude construction, it being large, loosely put 

 together externally, and rather scantily lined. I have no doubt 

 that, like some of the smaller Thrushes, as well as several of 

 the larger Warblers, the Nightingale to some extent scratches 

 a seat for the basis of its tenement. The outer layer is usually 

 composed of the dried leaves of various trees of the previous 

 season, extending at times in a loose manner to the distance of 

 several inches from the proper nest. The latter is cup-shaped, 

 with its cavity about four inches in breadth, and nearly as 

 much in depth, formed of dry fibrous roots of small size, now 

 and then interwoven with a few horse hairs. The eggs are 

 from four to six, rather large for the bird, three quarters of 

 an inch in length, seven twelfths in breadth, and of a pale 

 brownish colour. The parent birds incubate alternately, al- 

 though the female spends more time on the eggs than her mate. 



" Young Nightingales, like most young birds of their tribe, 

 are at first fed with macerated substances, for eight or ten 

 days, after which they receive small larvae, worms, and insects. 

 On two or three occasions, I have seen the young, when yet 

 not much more than half-fledged, leave the nest, and hop about 

 its vicinity during the day, but return towards evening and 

 huddle together, their mother covering them with due care. 

 So similar is their colour to that of the ground at this period, 

 that it is almost impossible to discover them, until the parents, 

 through their anxiety for their safety, are seen to hop round 

 them, and thus point them out to the searcher. At this early 

 age I have observed that they exhibited a great desire for small 

 insects, and even at times seized a butterfly extremely common 

 in France, especially in the neighbourhood of gardens and or- 

 chards, to which the Nightingale not unfrequently resorts for 

 food. 



" During the summer, and towards the period of its de- 



