THE NIGHTINGALE 19 



it is fancifully said, in contending for the prize in a musical contest. 

 This period is anxiously watched for by bird-catchers, who have 

 learnt by experience that birds entrapped before they have paired 

 will bear confinement in a cage, but that those captured after the 

 arrival of their mates pine to death. The Nightingale being a 

 fearless bird and of an inquisitive nature is easily snared ; hence, 

 in the neighbourhood of cities, the earliest and therefore strongest 

 birds fall ready victims to the fowler's art. 



It must not be supposed that this bird sings by night only. Every 

 day and all day long, from his first arrival until the young are hatched 

 (when it becomes his duty to provide for his family), perched in a 

 hedge or on the branch of a tree, rarely at any considerable height 

 from the ground, he pours forth his roundelay, now, however, obscured 

 by the song of other birds. But not even by day is he shy, for he 

 will allow any quietly disposed person to approach near enough 

 to him to watch the movement of his bill and heaving chest. At 

 the approach of night he becomes silent, generally discontinuing 

 his song about an hour before the Thrush, and resuming it between 

 ten and eleven. It is a disputed point whether the Nightingale's 

 song should be considered joyous or melancholy. This must 

 always remain a question of taste. My own opinion is, that the 

 piteous wailing note which is its most characteristic nature, casts a 

 shade of sadness as it were over the whole song, even those portions 

 which gush with the most exuberant gladness. I think, too, though 

 my assertion may seem a barbarous one, that if the Nightingale's 

 song comprised the wailing notes alone, it would be universally 

 shunned as the most painfully melancholy sound in nature. From 

 this, however, it is redeemed by the rapid transition, just when the 

 anguish of the bird has arrived at such a pitch as to be no longer 

 supportable, to a passage overflowing with joy and gladness. In the 

 first or second week of June he ceases his song altogether. His 

 cataract of sweet sounds is exhausted, and his only remaining note 

 is a harsh croak exactly resembling that of a frog, or the subdued 

 note of a Traven, wate-ivate or cur-cur. On one occasion only I 

 have heard him in full song so late as the fourth week in June : 

 but this probably was a bird whose first nest had been destroyed, 

 and whose song consequently had been retarded until the hatching 

 of a second brood. From this time until the end of August, when 

 he migrates eastward, he may often be observed picking up grubs, 

 worms, and ants' eggs on the garden lawn, or under a hedge in 

 fields, hopping from place to place with an occasional shake of the 

 wings and raising of the tail, and conspicuous whenever he takes one 

 of his short flights by his chestnut brown tail-coverts. 



The Nightingale's nest is constructed of dead leaves, principally 

 of the oak, loosely put together and placed on the ground under 

 a bush. Internally it is lined with grass, roots, and a few hairs. 

 It contains four or five eggs of a uniform olive-brown. 



