VOICES OF THE NIGHT 



somer, though, as it is seen only in the gloam- 

 ing, its quiet beauty is but little appreciated. 

 The unobtrusive dress of the nightingale, on 

 the other hand, is familiar in districts in 

 which the bird abounds, and is commonly 

 quoted, by contrast with its unrivalled voice, 

 as the converse of the gaudy colouring of 

 raucous macaws and parrakeets. As has been 

 said, both these birds are summer migrants, 

 the nightingale arriving on our shores about 

 the middle of April, the nightjar perhaps a 

 fortnight later. Thenceforth, however, their 

 programmes are wholly divergent, for, where- 

 as the nightjars proceed to scatter over the 

 length and breadth of Britain, penetrating 

 even to Ireland in the west and as far north 

 as the Hebrides, the nightingale stops far 

 short of these extremes and leaves whole 

 counties of England, as well as probably the 

 whole of Scotland, and certainly the whole of 

 Ireland, out of its calculations. It is however 

 well known that its range is slowly but surely 

 extending towards the west. 



This curiously restricted distribution of 

 the nightingale, indeed, within the limits of 

 its summer home is among the most remark- 

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