62 SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE. 



stragglers a little beyond the third degree of western 

 longitude." He was mistaken, however, in suppos- 

 ing that the Nightingale is unknown in Brittany. 

 Mr. H. V. Wilson informs us that when travelling 

 one night in the month of May from Nantes to 

 Chateaubriant, on nearing Chateaubriant the con- 

 veyance was stopped at the foot of a steep hill for 

 all to walk up. There was a forest on each side of 

 the road ; it was a dark, still night, and both sides 

 of the road amongst the trees seemed to be alive 

 with Nightingales singing their loudest. 1 



The Nightingale arrives in England generally 

 about the second week in April, the cock birds 

 invariably preceding the hens by several days. On 

 the arrival of the latter, the former soon pair and 

 assist in building, during which time, and while the 

 hens are sitting, they are in full song. When the 

 young are hatched the male birds leave off singing, 

 and busy themselves in bringing food to the nest. 



The song usually ceases before the end of the 

 first week in June. Occasionally, however, we 

 have heard a Nightingale sing on throughout June, 

 but accounted for this by supposing that the nest 



1 The Zoologist, 1877, p. 259. 



