18 THE NIGHTINGALE 
be admitted until it is proved that the portions of the island to 
which the Nightingale does resort abound in some kind of insect 
food which is not to be found in the extreme southern counties, 
and that the Nightingale, instead of being, as it is supposed, a 
general insect-eater, confines itself to that one; and this is a view 
of the question which no one has ventured to take. My own 
theory—and I only throw it out for consideration—is that the Night- 
ingale is not found in these two counties on account of their 
peculiar geographical position. The continental Nightingales are 
observed to take their departure in autumn, either eastward through 
Hungary, Dalmatia, Greece, and the islands of the Archipelago ; 
or southwards across the Straits of Gibraltar, but none by the broad 
part of the Mediterranean. Hence we may infer that the bird 
dislikes a long sea voyage, and that when in spring it migrates 
northward and westward, it crosses the English Channel at the 
narrowest parts only,! spreads itself over the nearest counties in 
the direction of its migration, but is instinctively prevented from 
turning so far back again to the south as the south-west peninsula 
of England. From Scotland it would be naturally excluded by 
its northern position, and from Ireland by the Welsh mountains 
and the broad sea. 
For the dwellers in these unfavoured districts alone is my de- 
scription of the Nightingale intended ; for, where it abounds, its 
habits are too well known to need any description. Twenty-four 
hours of genial May weather spent in the country with a good use 
of the eyes and ears, will reveal more of the life and habits of the 
bird than is contained in all the ornithological treatises that have 
been written on the subject, and they are not a few. 
No great amount of caution is necessary in approaching the 
Nightingale while singing at night. One may walk unrestrainedly 
across the fields, talking in an ordinary tone of voice, and not even 
find it necessary to suppress conversation when close to a singing 
bird. Either he is too intent on his occupation to detect the presence 
of strangers, or he is aware of the security in which he is wrapped 
by the shades of night, or he is actually proud of having listeners. 
In the neighbourhood of my present residence in Hertfordshire, 
Nightingales arenumerous. They arrive about the seventeenth of 
April, and for the first few days assemble year after year in the 
bushes and hedges of a certain hillside, the position of which it would 
be unsafe to indicate particularly,and taking their station two or three 
hundred yards apart from each other, set up a rivalry of song which 
is surpassingly beautiful. At this season, one may hear five or six 
chanting at once ; every break in the song of the nearest being filled 
up by the pipings or wailings of the more distant ones. The male 
birds arrive several days before the female, and employ the interval, 
1 This is the opinion of Gilbert White. 
