TURDIN.^i. 



39 



THE NIGHTINGALE. 

 Daulias luscinia (Linngeus). 



This noted songster comes to us in the first or second week in 

 April ; the males preceding the females by several days. Although 

 generally distributed over the greater part of England, it becomes 

 rarer in the west, until in Devonshire a line is reached beyond 

 which the bird is absolutely unknown ; and, although it visits 

 Herefordshire occasionally, the same may be said of Wales, except 

 Glamorganshire and Brecon. A straggler to Cheshire, of question- 

 able occurrence in Lancashire, and unknown in Westmoreland or 

 Cumberland, it has bred more than once near Scarborough, and it 

 has probably visited the valley of the Derwent, in Yorkshire ; while 

 in the exceptionally hot spring of 1893 Mr. G. Bolam saw and heard 

 a male in the north of Northumberland. As regards Ireland, a 

 specimen, said to have been shot near the Old Head of Kinsale, is 

 in the museum of Queen's College, Cork. 



On the Continent, Northern Germany appears to be the highest 

 authenticated latitude for our Nightingale ; south of which it is 

 generally distributed throughout Central Europe. In such southern 

 countries as Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey, it abounds 

 in suitable localities ; while it breeds also in North Africa, Palestine 

 and Asia Minor. Its north-eastern limit in Europe appears to be 

 the valley of the Vistula ; and in Russia it is confined to the 



