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not deeper than a sedge warbler's (as the sedge warblers is as 

 deep as theirs if amongst reeds), and were composed of grass 

 and bits of moss, bound together with wool and spiders' webs. 

 Its song is sweeter than the sedge warbler's, has fewer harsh 

 notes ; but in the same hurried manner — something like 

 "chiddy, chiddy, chit, chit, cha, cha, chit, chit," and so on. It 

 is larger, but has the same hiding habit. It is easily known 

 from that bird by its richer plumage and the want of the white 

 streak above the eye. The upper parts are greenish-brown ; 

 throat, breast, and belly, yellowish-white. The next typical 

 genus in this sub-family is 



Philomela — Nightingale. 



(Motacilla Luscinia.) Linn. (Philomela Luscinia.) Swains. 



" The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark 

 When neither is attended ; and, I think, 

 The nightingale, if she should sing by day 

 When every goose is cackling, would be thought 

 No better a musician than the wren." — Merchant of Venice. 



However justly celebrated it is for its power of song, I 

 reluctantly give it but a brief description, as it is not one of our 

 St Andrews birds, and seldom seen north of the Tweed. 

 White, of Selborne, says they "not only never reach 

 Northumberland and Scotland, but Devonshire and Cornwall. 

 In those two last counties we cannot attribute their failure to 

 the want of warmth, but as a presumptive argument that they 

 come over to us from the Continent at the narrowest passage, 

 and do not stroll so far westward." But in June 1889 it was 

 heard at Paisley and at Uddingston. Writing from Ucldingston, 

 June 9th, Mr James Anderson says— 



" For the first time for thirty-five years since I came here, I heard last 

 night, in the Greenrig Road, the sweet and varied song of the nightingale. 

 It is over these years since I heard it in the south of England, and its visit 

 here is so rare that a notice might be welcome to the general reader. Many 

 people who heard this bird thought, from the sweet shrillness and variety of 

 its notes, it might be the mocking bird (Turdus Polyqlottus) of Linnaeus — 

 a species of thrush that has not found its way to this northern climate. 

 It is not so, but is the true Motacilla Luscinia of Linnaeus, which some 

 authorities have changed to Philomela Luscinia. Linnaeus' description is 



