NIGHTINGALE. 279 



M. Nilsson says that the Nightingale arrives in Sweden 

 by the 1st of May ; and Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, 

 says this bird visits the temperate parts of Russia and 

 some parts of Siberia. It breeds in Germany, France, Spain, 

 Provence, and Italy ; but leaves even the most southern parts 

 of this last-named country by the end of September, or early 

 in October, to pass the winter in North Africa, Egypt, and 

 Syria. Mr. Strickland saw this bird at Smyrna on the 5th 

 of April. It also visits the islands of the Grecian Archi- 

 pelago. 



The beak is brown ; the irides hazel : the head, and all the 

 upper parts of the body and wings, of a uniform rich brown, 

 tinged with reddish chestnut ; the tail-feathers still more ru- 

 fous, and rather rounded in form : all the under surface of the 

 bird dull greyish white ; the chin, and the lower part of the 

 breast, of a lighter tint than the throat and chest ; under 

 tail-coverts pale reddish white ; legs, toes, and claws, brown. 



The whole length of the bird, six inches and three-eighths. 

 From the carpus to the end of the longest primary, three 

 inches and one-quarter : the first quill-feather very short, tlie 

 second equal in length to the fifth, the third the longest in 

 the wing. 



The female in plumage resembles the male. 



Young birds have bufF-coloured spots on the tips of the 

 feathers of the upper surface of the body ; those on the under 

 surface have dark margins. 



