THE NIGHTINGALE. 



121 



many of the districts to which it unfailingly resorts, is not 

 so clear. Several reasons have been assigned one, that 

 cowslips do not grow in these counties : this may be dis- 

 missed at once as purely fanciful ; another is, that the soil 

 is too rocky : this is not founded on fact, for both Devon 

 and Cornwall abound in localities which would be to 

 Mghtingales a perfect Paradise, if they would only come ; 

 a third is, that the proper food is not to be found there : 





THE NIGHTINGALE. 



but this reason cannot be admitted until it is proved that 

 the portions of the island to which the Nightingale does 

 resort abound in some kind of insect food which is not to 

 be found in the extreme southern counties, and that the 

 Nightingale, instead of being, as it is supposed, a general 

 insect-eater, confines itself to that one ; and this is a view 

 of the question which no one has ventured to take. My 

 own theory and I only throw it out for consideration is, 



