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ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE NIGHTINGALE 



DURING THE BREEDING SEASON 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



BY 



N. F. TICEHURST and the REV. F. C. R. JOURDAIN. 



Introductory. 



In the south-eastern counties the Nightingale {Daulias 

 luscinia) is of general distribution, although even here there 

 are certain localities where it becomes scarce or is altogether 

 wanting. Thus it is a scarce bird on the Chiltern Hills in 

 southern Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, and also on the 

 high ground of the Marlborough Downs and the treeless expanse 

 of Salisbury Plain, while even in Kent it is less numerous above 

 500 feet. Still, it is unnecessary to go into detail in the 

 following counties : Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Middle- 

 sex, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, 

 Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, 

 Huntingdonshire, and Northamptonshire. In Wiltshire it is 

 also tolerably general in all suitable ground, but avoids the 

 high downlands and open plains, where cover is lacking. 

 Rutlandshire mav also be included among the counties where 

 it breeds regularly, and the present inquiry has been chiefly 

 devoted to those counties which he on the edge of its range, 

 or where the distribution is local only. 



These include Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Somersetshire, 

 Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire, Glamorganshire (Carmarthen- 

 shire and Cardiganshire), Brecknockshire, Radnorshire, Here- 

 fordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Montgomeryshire, 

 Shropshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincoln- 

 shire, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, Cheshke, Denbighshire, 

 and Flintshire, and possibly Lancashire, Durham, and 

 Northumberland. These we will now proceed to consider in 

 detail, as the Nightingale is entirely absent from the other 

 counties not mentioned here. 



Man}^ theories have been advanced at different times to 

 account for the irregular distribution of this species, such as 



