185



THE


Avicultural Magazine,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF

THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



Third Series. —Vol. VIII.—No. 7 .—All rights reserved. MAY, 1917.



THE COMING OF THE NIGHTINGALE.


By W. E. Teschemaker.


Our Editor having asked me to postpone the completion of

my recent article, in view of his wish to secure some “ copy ” to

accompany two most excellent photographs of our greatest song¬

bird, I have as a matter of course acceded to his request. He has

not confided to me the particular object he had in view, but the

moment is certainly appropriate, for “spring is y- cumen in,” and

the Nightingale is presumably just reaching our shores. In any

ordinary season we should be quite certain to see him by April 20th,

but this is no ordinary season. All the earlier migrants are a month

late. I saw the first Chiff-chaff on the 17th near Exeter, and I have

not yet seen a Wheatear. The later migrants seem to be keeping to

their usual time schedule, but, alas! how few and far between they

are. As yet I have only seen five Swallows and one Sand Martin,

and have only heard two Cuckoos.


The alarming decrease of our summer migrants, which has

been noted for years past, has been greatly accentuated this season,

and I fear that a great disaster has overwhelmed the leading battal¬

ions of the great army. We have it on the authority of Seebohm

that the leaders of the Snowbuntings and Geese, which nest in

Northern Russia, turn back and fly southward again if they find the

conditions unsuitable upon arrival at their nesting quarters, but there

is no evidence, I think, that any migrants recross the Mediterranean.

Many no doubt linger on the Cote d’Azur, but those ardent spirits,

who decide to press forward and stake their all upon the chance, are


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