DISTRIBUTION OF THE NIGHTINGALE. 13 



them singing in 1908 and 1909, while in some years as many 

 as three or four could be heard singing at once. It seems 

 probable that these birds represent an " overflow " from the 

 valley of the Teme where, in the neighbouring district of 

 Worcestershire, the Nightingale breeds fairly regularly. 



WoRCESTERSHmE. — Though somewhat irregularly distri- 

 buted the Nightingale does not appear to be absent from any 

 large area. It is most plentiful m the valleys of the Severn, 

 Avon, and Teme, and such parts of their tributaries as run 

 through low and fertile places. The higher and compara- 

 tively barren regions of the county are seldom visited. Its 

 numbers vary greatly from year to year, but it is said to have 

 increased much within living memory in the south-east of the 

 county. Its visits to the Malvern district, on the Hereford- 

 shire border, would appear to be irregular. 



Warwickshire. — Warwickshire being one of those counties 

 that still lacks a book devoted to its fauna, detailed 

 information has been a httle hard to come by, and being near 

 the western boundar}^ of the Nightingale's range, it would 

 be desirable to work out its distribution with greater accuracy 

 than is at present possible. It will be fairly correct, however, 

 to say that over the greater part of the county, as far north 

 as the latitude of Birmingham, the bird is generally, and fairly 

 numerously, distributed. It occurs in greatest numbers in 

 lower-lying alluvial tracts, e.g. below 200 feet in the valleys 

 of the Avon, Arrow, and Stour, in the southern division of the 

 county. In the northern half it is decidedly less numerous, 

 though still uniformly distributed up to Birmingham, while in 

 this area its numbers are largest in the valley of the Blythe, 

 below 300 feet. North of Birmingham information is very 

 scanty, and it seems probable that its distribution thins out 

 rapidly, as Mr. Steele Elliot regards it as a rare bird at Sutton 

 Coldfield, near the Staffordshire border. There seems to have 

 been a steady increase in numbers throughout the southern 

 two-thirds of the county during the last ten years. 



Montgomeryshire. — All the occurrences of the Nightingale 

 within the county-limits are from the Severn Valley, between 

 where the river flows into Shropshire and a few miles above 

 Montgomery. The most southerly locality is Abermule, where 

 it was heard for two or three years by the Severn (Rev. E. 0. 

 Philpott). At Leighton it was heard singing in May, 1900 

 (Bruce), and about 1869 another was frequently heard at 

 Guilsfield, near Welshpool (Beck). Near the junction of the 

 Fyrnwy and Severn one or two pairs haunt the Shropshire 

 border near Kinnerley (H. E. Forrest). 



