258 MIGRATION OF NIGHTINGALES. 



than once to the regular return of birds to the same 

 nests and places of their birth; and it might be supposed, 

 that this would solve the mystery, the Nightingales 

 naturally returning only to those spots where, for time 

 out of mind, a train of ancestors might have built before 

 them; but this is not borne out by facts: for a gentleman 

 who was very desirous of introducing these birds on his 

 estate in a northern part of the .kingdom, commissioned 

 a person in London to purchase as many Nightingales' 

 eggs as he could procure at a shilling each. This was 

 done accordingly; they were carefully packed in wool, 

 and forwarded by the mail. In the mean time men had 

 been employed to find, and take care of several Robin 

 Redbreasts' nests, in places where they might hatch 

 securely. The eggs were then placed under the Robins, 

 by whom the young Nightingales were successfully 

 reared, and remained in the neighbourhood till the usual 

 time for migration; when it is supposed they went away, 

 as they were not seen again after that period, arid not 

 one was known to return to the place of its birth. It 

 has been suggested by others, that being a delicate bird, 

 and little calculated to endure the fatigue of long flights, 

 they migrated from the Continent only to the eastern 

 coast of England, and then gradually journeyed inland; 

 and consequently that this would account for their not 

 being seen in Cornwall, and some of the other western 

 parts of England. But in reply to this, it should be 

 remembered, that the eastern flight across the Channel, 

 unless they all embarked at Calais for the coasts of 

 Essex and Kent, is as wide as that between the western 

 coasts of France where they are plentiful, and the cor- 

 responding coasts of England, which they do not visit*. 



The Nightingale stands unrivalled at the head of our 

 singing birds, and may be called, as old Izaak Walton, 

 the angler, terms them, " chiefest of the little nimble 

 musicians of the air, that warble forth their curious 

 ditties with which nature has furnished them to the 



* See p. 90. 



