18 Mr. Blyth's Commentary 



pincE. My opinion has always been that the Nightingales are 

 very closely akin to the small Solitary Thrushes of x\merica. 

 Their speckled nestling-plumage is at variance with Dr. Jerdon's 

 view, as is also their mode of nidification. Audubon's descrip- 

 tion of the song, habits, and nidification of Turdus wilsoni, on 

 the contrary, accords remarkably with what we observe of the 

 British Nightingale*. 



For some years past (until the time that I left India) a Ger- 

 man speculator annually brought a large supply of European 

 singing-birds to Calcutta, including half-a-dozen or more Night- 

 ingales on each occasion. I possessed one, in fine song, at the 

 time I quitted the country. Some years ago, also, but not lat- 

 terly. Nightingales were brought all the way to Calcutta from 

 Persia, via Afghanistan; but these were of a rather larger 

 species, perhaps Luscinia major [Sylvia philoinela, Temm.), and 

 were scarcely quite equal to the other as songsters. To the 

 natives they are alike known as the Bulbul Bosta. In Dr. 

 Hooker's work on the Sikhim Himalaya, "the Nightingale" is 

 referred to, more than once, as an inhabitant of the interior of 

 Sikhim, and as singing at a time of the year (October) in which 

 the real Nightingales are mute. Of course some other bird is 

 intended, though of what species or genus I am unable to con- 

 jecture. The Shama, which is sometimes called the Indian 

 Nightingale, does not inhabit Sikhim. The importation of 

 Nightingales and other European song-birds should be borne in 

 mind in the event of skins of such birds happening to occur in 

 collections brought from India. Dr. A. Leith Adams justly 

 remarks that Moore, in his ' Lalla Rookh,' might have intro- 

 duced the Swallow in place of the Nightingale. " 'The Nightin- 

 gale's hymn from the Isle of Chunars' is a creation of the poet's 

 imagination. The Luscinia philomela is not found in the West- 

 ern Himalayas" (P. Z. S. 1859, p. 175). Nor in the Eastern 

 Himalayas most assuredly ! 



515. AcROCEPHALUS BRUNNESCENs, Jerd. ; A. orientalis, 

 G. R. Gray, P. Z. S. 1 860, p. 349 (from Batchian). Also occurs 

 in Java. 



* Two species of Luscinia from South iyrica are mentioued by Dr. 

 Ilartlaub (Ibis, 1862, p. 145). Surely these are not veritable Nightingales ? 



