a2 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 
fair idea of its general form and proportions and also of 
its simple colouring. It is a little over seven inches long 
and is a slender, delicately made bird with close plumage. 
The brown of the upper surface is greyer in some speci- 
mens and redder in others, the tail being always reddest ; 
the bill and feet are a sort of horny flesh-colour. Al- 
together the Nightingale is a very hard bird to describe ; 
but the very absence of any special feature—its well- 
balanced proportions and unrelieved soberness of colour 
—makes it not difficult to recognize when once seen. 
And no other bird at all resembling it is commonly caged. 
The hen is just like the cock; but young birds will 
probably be found to be spotted with buff, like the young 
of the European bird. 
A considerable number of these birds are brought down 
yearly from Cabul for sale in Calcutta, where they fetch 
very high prices, from fifty to four hundred rupees. The 
hens, of course, are almost valueless, and as the sexes 
are so difficult to distinguish, it is necessary, when buy- 
ing a Nightingale, to hear the bird sing one’s self, and 
also to make sure that the bird one sees really 7s the 
performer ; as there is a trick of showing, and selling, the 
intending purchaser a hen, while a cock is singing behind 
a curtain! The song of the Persian Nightingale, judging 
from a very fine bird of Mr. Ezra’s which I have heard, 
is much stronger than that of the European Nightingale, 
but, less sweet in tone. The birds sing well in captivity in 
the winter and spring months, and will live for years, 
but need great care. The satoo given them must be of / 
the best, and carefully prepared, and insects must always 
