if sb 
Wild Birds Protection Act, 1896.—In addition to any penalty under the Act of 1880, 
the Court may now order any trap, net, snare, etc., used by the offender, to be forfeited. 
The Nightingale is protected all the year round in the counties of Stafford, Essex, 
London, Middlesex, and the County Borough of Kingston-upon-Hull. 
In connection with the protection of the Nightingale it is pleasing to be able to remark 
that farmers and fruit growers are agreed that the bird should be most fully protected ; not 
merely from a sentimental point of view, but because of its usefulness as an insect-eating 
bird. One large fruit grower in this district, who has very kindly supplied me with valuable 
information concerning the feeding habits of some of our wild birds, wrote :—“TI should like 
to see a heavy penalty enforced against anyone destroying these birds”—referring to the 
Nightingale and several other British birds enumerated in a list. 
VII. Remarks. 
At the time of the immigration of the Nightingales to this country the male birds 
precede the females by a few days, and at once commence their song, by that means attracting 
their mates on the arrival of the latter, and the song is continued during the period of 
incubation, after which the energies of both parents are devoted to feeding the young: it 
occasionally happens that the song is continued to a later period of the season, and in 1888 
I heard a Nightingale singing as late as July the 15th, which was an exceptionally late date ; 
perhaps it is scarcely necessary to add that the notes were very hoarse and wanting in tone. 
The nest of the Nightingale is built on or close to the ground, amongst a thick tangle 
of undergrowth in shrubberies, copses, and woods ; and as the bird itself differs from all our 
other native birds by virtue of its song, so also does its nest differ from other nests in 
construction, being a most picturesque and beautiful structure, composed chiefly of dried 
grasses commingled with dead leaves, those of the oak being more frequently chosen ; and 
at first sight the nest may easily be passed by as a bundle of withered foliage : the interior, 
however, is much more neatly finished, being lined with fiver grasses and horsehair. 
IT am inclined to think that the male bird participates in the incubation of the egos, and 
ain induced to believe that to be the case through the following instance which came under 
my notice a few years ago, when I was living in one of our Kentish villages, where my 
garden was visited year after year by a pair of Nightingales, which always nested close by ; 
one year they had their nest in a small copse that was not more than a dozen yards from 
the house, so that I had frequent opportunities to observe their movements. One day, whilst 
I was watching the female as she hopped about on the ground, feeding, [ saw that when she 
went in the direction of the nest she was joined by her mate, who came from the copse 
shaking and ruffling his feathers, and stretching himself, in the manner of birds when they 
leave their eggs after a spell of sitting; he then perched on a neighbouring tree, gave a 
short burst of song, and flew away, and the hen at the same time went to the nest. 
To many people the Nightingale is nothing more than a voice in the wood, a sprite in 
the coppice or wayside covert, and it is really a matter for wonder to meet such a large 
number of individuals—even amongst those who live in the country—who do not know the 
bird apart from its song, and who express their surprise when they first see a specimen in a 
collection, or have the living bird pointed out to them in the midst of its haunts; and they 
appear to consider it a marvellous matter that such a plainly coloured, sober-looking bird 
should possess so powerful a gift of song. 
And yet the Nightingale is not altogether a shy bird, but soon becomes accustomed to 
the presence of man near its haunts, and when properly approached will allow an observer to 
get very near to it, as I have often done in the garden of my former cottage home at Sutton 
