NIGHTINGALE. 317 



respecting a pair believed to have visited Calder Wood in Mid 

 Lothian in 1826 ; or Mr. Turnbull's (Birds of East Lothian, 

 p. 39) of its being heard near Dalmeny Park in the same county 

 in June, 1839.* In Ireland there is no trace of this species. 

 Tlie most northern point reached by our Nightingale seems 

 to be the neighbourhood of Copenhagen, whence Dr. Kjser- 

 bolling says he has had its eggs ; but, whether this be true 

 or not, it is found in many places in Funen, and Scheel 

 met with it on Moen. In North Germany, according to 

 Dr. Borggi-eve, it is a bird tolerably characteristic of bushy 

 gardens ; and, though abundant in Mecklenburg, is not found 

 in that part of Pomerania which lies north of the river 

 Peene, nor does it reach so far to the east as Danzig. It 

 occurs, however, sparingly on the Polish frontier near Thorn. 

 Though appearing generally throughout South Germany, the 

 local ornithologists give but a sad history of it, for here it 

 does not seem to be, as in Prussia, protected by law, and in 

 consequence it has in several districts suftered severely. 

 This is especially the case near some of the Bavarian towns, 

 as Ratisbon, Passau and Munich, where, according to HH. 

 Brandt, Jackel and Von der Miihle, it has been completely 

 extirpated by the bird-catchers, while in other places where 

 it formerly bred it is now only known as a passenger. It 

 occurs in Austria, Upper Hungary and Galicia. In Russia 

 its distribution cannot be precisely traced, but it does not 

 reach the Governments near the Ural, though plentiful, 

 according to Dr. Czerny in that of Kharkov, and Major Irby 



* It will be understood of course that the witnesses whose testimony is thus 

 impugned, are not charged with any wish to deceive. Persons unused to the song 

 of the Nightingale, and even some who are not without experience of it, may 

 mistake that of some other bird for it, and be excused for so doing when we find 

 the Swedish ornithologists of the present day suspecting that Linnieus himself 

 wrongly attributed to a Nightingale the melody with which the banks of the Fyris 

 resound. There is better evidence than most of that given above for a statement 

 quite as extraordinary — the Nightingale's singing in England at midwinter (Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. V. p. 654) ; but in reference to this and similar cases, a remark by Mr. 

 Newman (Zool. p. 8161), that he has "been often astonishfd at the great mistakes 

 made as to the song " of this bird, is very apt ; and Mr. Stevenson says that from 

 personal inquiry he is convinced that most of the "Early Nightingales" of news- 

 paper paragraphs are Song-Thrushes. 



