Correspondence, Notes , etc.



283



It would appear, therefore, that hemp seed in all probability causes

indigestion, which sets up in some of the Parrakeets a heated and impure

condition of the blood, followed by feather-picking, fits, and other

mischief.—R. P.



NIGHTINGALE OFF SOUTH AFRICA.


I11 a very interesting article by Mr. George Carrick entitled “ A Trip

to Australia,” which appeared in this Magazine last year (Vol. VIII. p. 223),

the author tells how a Nightingale came on board his ship in Latitude

39°o3 S., Longitude 26 Q 46 E., or 306 miles due South of Port Elizabeth,

South Africa. Shortly after the publication of this article I received the

following letter from Dr. P. L. Sclater, late Secretary to the Zoological

Society of London, and an Honorary Member of this Society


‘‘Do you really think that Mr. Carrick caught a Nightingale 300

miles South of Port Elizabeth (see Avic. Nag'. Aug. last, p. 223) or is there

not some mistake ? The Nightingale is not in the South African list, and I

hope you will get the story properly investigated.”


Mr. Carrick had then gone back to Australia, and I was unable to

communicate with him until his return ; but I happened at that time to be

in correspondence with Mr. A. J. Campbell, of Melbourne, a well-known

Australian ornithologist, who, Mr. Carrick stated, often paid him a visit on

arrival, and inspected his birds. I therefore asked Mr. Campbell if he had

seen the bird and could corroborate Mr. Carrick’s identification of it. Mr.

Campbell replied as follows: “Referring to your question re Mr. Carrick

and the Nightingale caught at sea, I did not understand where the bird was

taken, but I saw in Mr. Carrick’s possession, on his ship, a bird which I

believe was the Nightingale, and a friend of mine from Britain pronounced

it to be that bird. I also know the person who purchased it. The bird was

successfully kept for three or four months on mealworms and other

insectivorous food, but in our autumn I think it got mixed up in its moult

and succumbed.” I have since had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Carrick on

his return to England last January, and he told me that he was perfectly

certain that the bird was a genuine Nightingale, and that it came on board

at the exact spot stated in his article. At the Crystal Palace Bird Show in

February last he examined the Nightingales closely, and told me that he

had 110 doubt whatever that the bird above referred to belonged to the same

species.


There are three species of Nightingales, the Greater Nightingale or

“ Sprosser ” (Daulias philomela), inhabiting Scandinavia, Denmark, and

Eastern Europe; our common Nightingale (D. luscinia ) which is distri¬

buted through Central Flurope; and the Persian form (D. golzii). Mr.

Carrick’s bird 111a} - of course have belonged to the latter species which



