48 BIEDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



Hampstead, but on a comparison with specimens of 

 the Reed Warbler it was found that they differed 

 from that bird in several respects. The head proved 

 narrower and darker in colour, the tail longer, the 

 wings slightty longer, and the tarsi shorter and 

 thicker. Should more specimens be obtained agree- 

 ing in the above particulars, this difference, coupled 

 with the fact of the bird being found at a distance 

 from water (in this respect differing from S. 

 arunclinacea), would justify its being considered a 

 distinct species. The subject is one of much interest, 

 and deserving the attention of naturalists. 



Nightingale, Sylvia luscinia. A regular summer 

 visitant, arriving towards the end of April and 

 departing in August. Before the discovery was 

 made by London birdcatchers, a favourite locality 

 for the Nightingale was Harrow Weald. It is now 

 by no means so common a bird in the county as 

 formerly. 



A quondam keeper of m}^ acquaintance, an adept 

 in the art of birdcatching, told me that at one time 

 he rented a cottage for which he paid £10 a year. 

 If there was what he called *' a good Nightingale 

 season," he made more than enough to pay his rent 

 by the capture and sale of these birds ! In one 

 season alone he caught fifteen dozen, receiving 

 eighteen shillings a dozen for them in London. He 

 told me also that, on one occasion, he caught no 

 less than nineteen Nightingales before breakfast in 



