THE NIGHTINGALES. 275 



Young. — Duller brown than the adults, and mottled on the 

 upper surface with ochreous-brown markings near the tips of 

 the feathers, which are edged with dusky brown ; the under 

 surface of the body dingy-white, with dusky margins to the 

 feathers of the throat and breast; wings and tail as in the 

 adults, but rather darker chestnut ; the wing-coverts tipped with 

 ochreous buff spots. 



Range in Great Britain. — A summer visitor, arriving in the 

 middle of April, but not extending to the northern counties of 

 England, and up to the present unrecorded from Scotland or 

 Ireland. It does not extend its range through all the western 

 counties of England, and in Devonshire and the greater part of 

 Wales it reaches its western limit in this country. To the north 

 it is found in Yorkshire, and occasionally in Cheshire, but it is 

 only of doubtful occurrence in Lancashire. 



Range outside the British Islands. — The Nightingale is a summer 

 visitor to the greater part of Southern and Central Europe, and 

 breeds in all the Mediterranean countries, including North 

 Africa and Palestine. Its range to the north-east extends to 

 the valley of the Vistula, but the species is not found in North- 

 eastern Germany, and in Russia it only inhabits the southern 

 provinces during its stay. In winter it visits North-eastern 

 Africa, and it was found by Captain Shelley on the Gold Coast. 



Habits. — The male birds always precede the females in their 

 arrival by a few days, and as soon as they reach our shores 

 they are distributed over the w T oods and thickets of the 

 southern counties, where their beautiful notes betray their 

 presence. Several males may then be heard singing in the 

 same wood, their liquid notes being heard in answer to one 

 another throughout the whole day. As soon, however, as 

 the hen-birds have come, building operations are com- 

 menced, and the male sings more frequently towards night- 

 fall, continuing at intervals throughout the night, if the weather 

 be fine. Until recent years the song of the Nightingale could 

 be heard in the western suburbs of London, and the bird 

 regularly frequented the orchards near Bedford Park up to 1SS2, 

 while many people are still living who can remember the 

 Nightingale's song at Bayswater, and a specimen from this once 

 rural district of London is in the British Museum. 



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