174 BRITISH 1U1{1)S. [vol. vi. 



portrayal of the attitude at the height of the flick, but 

 lacks success owing to the aforementioned light and 

 exposure difficulty. 



The 1911 male was singing most of the day except 

 when actively searching for food, and it often seemed 

 that he signalized his arrival with food to the hen by 

 a burst of song, and it was curious to see him pouring 

 out his flood of melody with his bill crammed with 

 green caterpillars. The generally-quoted statement that 

 the song ceases directly the young are hatched, is certainly 

 not strictly accurate. The prolonged nocturnal serenade 

 certainly does so, but the bird sings intermittently at 

 night until the young are beginning to fledge, the amount 

 of song decreasing nightly. Until the young are five 

 or six days old the male sings pretty constantly also by 

 day, and perhaps therefore normally does take less part 

 in the rearing of the young up to that time than he 

 does later ; the song is perhaps less loud than before 

 the young are hatched, but it is difficult to judge of 

 this at very close range and I could not be sure that it 

 was so. Occasional snatches of song may be heard during 

 the day-time up to the time when the young are fledging 

 (about the eighth or ninth day). The harsh " swearing " 

 note seems to be httle, if at all, used until the young 

 are actually out of the nest. There is another note, 

 however, which seems to be indicative of alarm or 

 anxiety and with which I was previously unacquainted. 

 It is a single, plaintive whistling-note, similar to that 

 of the Willow-Wren and is indeed common to several 

 other warblers. The Nightingale's is singularly loud and 

 penetrating, but I could detect no difference between it 

 and that of the Garden-Warbler. It is made use of by 

 both sexes, though it seems to be more the peculiar 

 property of the female. I first heard it at night, ^^•hile 

 listening to a male singing ; each separate verse, so to 

 speak, of his song was heralded by this loud note, and 

 it occurred to me the next day when I found a hen 

 Nightingale making constant use of it that perhaps the 



