EARLY MAY 31 
which the notes came, remaining still as mice 
when we got near. Often the birds allowed us 
to approach so close that we could see them 
as they sang just overhead, absorbed in rhap- 
sody for many minutes at a time, piping out 
their lullabies. The plumage of the nightin- 
gale is very plain: brown and grey are the 
only colours that the birds display; the 
back is brown, the breast a brownish grey. 
They leave this country with their young in 
July or the next month without fail. 
As we sat and watched the nightingales, 
we became aware that they were not the 
only occupants of this secluded dell, for 
more than once we had heard the triple, and 
som-times four times, loud, and oft-repeated 
notes (see page 147) of that peculiar bird the 
wryneck, so called from the wriggles which 
it gives its neck when in an excited state. 
It is also called the cuckoo’s mate, for it 
arrives just at the time of, or shortly pre- 
vious to, the advent of that bird upon our 
shores. When in the early spring we can 
say with Solomon of old, ‘ The winter is past 
