NIGHTINGALE. S5 



In some years, however, Nig-litingales arrive at the latter end 

 o£ the month ; one which flew against a window in Banbury, 

 and was picked up dead, on the night of the 24th April, 1886, 

 was evidently on migration. 



The distribution of the Nightingale in this county is by no 

 means general, Mid-Oxon and the Thames district having it 

 in greater plenty than other parts of the county. About 

 Oxford it is numerous, and also in the neighbourhood of 

 Weston-on- the- Green [Zoologist, p. 2534), and it apparently 

 breeds commonly in suitable localities all along the Thames 

 valley. The extensive woods at Nuneham Park, with their 

 luxuriant undergrowth of hazel, and glades blue with wild 

 hyacinth varied with pink lychnis and white satin flowers, 

 resound in May with the song of many Nightingales. In the 

 bare beech woods of the northern Chilterns it is, however, scarce 

 (B. D^Oyly Aplin). About Kingham it is much less common 

 than at Oxford, breeding only in a few known spots (W. W. 

 Fowler). In the northern division it is rather scarce. Certain 

 localities, where some five-and-twenty years ago it was to be 

 heard commonly, have of late years been entirely deserted, its 

 strange disappearance being remarked upon by many who in 

 former years listened to it annually. During many years'" 

 residence at Bodicote I never heard it; neither have I yet 

 met with it in tliis parish. In the neighbourhood of Great 

 Bourton, however, two or three pairs were to be found annually, 

 and it is probably sporadically distributed over the district in 

 an extremely irregular manner. 



Seldom heard after midsummer day at the latest, it prob- 

 ably leaves us early in September; but the Messrs. Matthews 

 say that it sometimes remains unusually late in autumn, and 

 they instance a freshly-killed female brought in by a cat on 

 the loth November, 183(5. [Zoologist, p. 2534.) 



The song of the Nightingale differs greatly from that of 

 any of our other birds, and though many unobservant people, 

 waking in the early hours of a May morning, and catching 



