500 



NIGHT 



NIGHTINGALE 



the river lieloxv Timbuktu (while it- navigation in 

 declared free) U placed under the protection of 

 Britain; and tin- British I'liiicd Al'iicmi Company 

 (founded 1879, chartered 1886), with its stations at 

 Akasa, Onittdia, A.salxa, Loknia, &<-., has practical 

 command f the trade. The English Church 

 Missionary Society has long lalioured in the delta 

 region anil inland ax far as possible ; and in 1804 

 Bishop Crowlher was ap|minted to the Uthoplic of 

 the Niger. Above Tinilniktii the control U in the 

 hand- of the French, who have steamer* on the 

 river, have built forts at Kouroussa, Siguiri, 

 Kanguba, and Itanimako, and are rapidly pushing 

 eastwards. Germanv made a strong effort, mainly 

 through Klegel, to seize the control on the Benuc, 

 liut wits thwarteil hy the l/nited African Company. 

 For a Inn;.' time slaves were almost the only article 

 of export from the Niger; at a later date ]>alm-oil 

 became so distinctly the. staple that the name Oil 

 Rivera was given to the various outlets of the 

 delta in which the Niger pro|>er interlaces with 

 several sealmanl streams. The Royal Nijjer Com- 

 pany, which has made exclusive treaties with 

 Sokoto, Borgu, and other states, is governed hy a 

 board in London : the Oil Rivers is, since 1892, a 

 British protectorate. The British sphere accord- 

 ingly now extends from the Bight of Benin to Say 

 on the Niger, and from Lagos to Lake Tsad ( Chad ). 

 North of this line from Say to Barrawa on Lake 

 Tsad is French ; east of a line from the Cross 

 River to beyond Yola on the Benui: is German. 



See Joneph Thomson, ifunjo Park and the Niger 

 (1890); Mockler- Ferryman, Up the Niger (1893); and 

 Keltic, The Partition of Africa (1893). 



V ililit . See DAY. Amongst the ancient Greeks 

 Night (.Vi/a-) was personified as a powerful goddess, 

 who by means of sleep exercised power over men 

 and gods. According to Hesiod, she was the 

 daughter of Chaos, wife of Erelms, and mother of 

 Aether and Heniera (Day), of the Fates, Sleep, 

 Death, Dreams, Hunger, Fear, Nemesis, and Strife. 



Msillt-hawk, tin- usual name in the United 

 States for the Chnrdciles popetue, a goatsucker 

 belonging to a different genus and species of the 

 Caprimulgidie from the European Goatsucker 

 (q.v.). 



\iiihOhoron (Nyrticorax), one of the genera 

 of aerodJoftM (see HERON), cosmopolitan in its 

 ili-t rilmtiori, and including nine species. One 

 species, N. nriseiis, widely distributed over the 

 whole of Africa and southern Asia, breeding in the 

 Spanish peninsula and in Italy, and a migrant to 

 places near the Baltic, has now, since the year 1872 

 when it was first recorded near London, become an 

 almost annual visitor to various parts of the British 

 Islands in spring and autumn, and would probably 

 breed if unmolested. It is about 23 inches long; 

 it nests in colonies on trees or hushes in swamps, 

 or on reeds strongly built together in a pile, and 

 feeds on wat-r insects and their larvir, worms, 

 snails, small fish, and frogs. Closely allied forms 

 inhabit America, the A". /</.< (Nyctiardea 

 Ganleni, Baird ), the common American night- 

 heron, being found all over the United States, as a 

 permanent resident in the southern portion only ; 

 and in the Malayo Australian region N. caledonicus, 

 a distinct specie*, occurs. 



MglltlllLCIlh' (ftiiuluu) a genus of Passerine 

 birds of the family TurdidiP. The bill is straight, 

 slender, not quite as long as the head ; the wings 

 do not much paw licyond the base of the tail ; the 

 first quill is very short, the third is the longest; 

 the tail is slightly rounded ; toes long, claws 

 rather short. The Common Nightingale (It. 

 lufdnia ) is well known as the finest of songsters. 

 It is rather larger than the hedge-sparrow, with 

 about the same proportionate length of wings and 



tail. It is of a rich russet brown colour above, 

 shading into reddish chestnut on the tail-en-. 

 and tail; the lower pait giayish white; bill, legs, 

 and feet brown. The M-\< s are alike in plumage. 

 It is a native of many parts of Europe and Asia, 

 and of the north of Africa, extending as far as to 

 Abvssinia, and to the Gold Const in \\.-t Aniea, 

 and is a bird of passage, extending its summer 

 migrations on the continent of F.urope as far north 

 as the south of Sweden, though in ISiitain it has 

 scarcely ever been seen farther north than York- 

 shire. It is plentiful in some parts of the south 

 and east of England, but is less common in the 

 western counties, and does not visit Scotland, 

 Ireland, or Wales, except Glamorganshire ami 

 Brecon. It frequents thicket* ana hedges and 

 damp meadows near streams. The market -gardens 

 near London are among its favourite haunt*. It 

 feeds very much on worms, beetles, insects, 

 ants' eggs, cater- 

 pillars and other 

 insect larva-. It 

 arrives in Eng- 

 land about I lie 

 middle of April, 

 the males about 

 ten days before 

 the females. It 

 is at this .season, 

 and liefore pair- 

 ing has i.-ikcn 

 place, that bird- 

 catchers gener- 

 ally procure 

 nightingales for 

 cage - birds, as 

 they then be- 

 come easily re- 

 conciled to con- 

 finement, whilst 

 if taken after 

 pairing they fret 

 and pine till 

 they (lie. If 

 nightingales, 

 however, are to 

 be kept in confinement they ought to be taken 

 from the nest when young and reared by the 

 hand. The nightingale makes its nest generally 

 on the ground, but sometimes on a low fork of a 

 bush. The nest is loosely constructed of dead 

 leaves, rushes, and stalks of gi;is-. with a lining 

 of fibrous roots. The eggs are from four to six in 

 number, of a uniform deep olive brown. The song 

 of the male ceases to be heard as soon as incuha- 

 tion U over. In captivity, however, it is often 

 continued through a more considerable period. 

 The nightingale usually begins its song in the 

 evening, and sings with "brief intervals throughout 

 the night. The variety, loudness, ami richness of 

 it* notes are equally extraordinary ; anil its long 

 quivering strains are full of plaintivcness as well 



as of pas-iona! -st.]^. '1 he nightingale has 



been a favourite from most ancient times, and is 

 often mentioned in the poetry of India and 

 1'eisia, of Greece and Home, as well as 1>\ Shake- 

 speare and Herrick, Keats and Coleridge, and 

 many others. The loves of the Bulbul (q.v.) 

 and the rose nre a fanciful theme in which 

 eastern poets delight. The nightingale, as a 

 rule, is not a shy bird, for although it is but 

 seldom seen it seems to prefer to live near the 

 abode of man ; nor is it quarrelsome with others 

 of its own species except at pairing time. A 

 closely allied ~|.r c -j. v (J). golzii) is found from the 

 Caucasus to Turkestan and Persia, and in north- 

 eastern and central Kuro]ie the Northern Nightin- 

 gale or ' Sprosser' (D. p/iilomela) is found, quite a 



l 'minium Nightingale 

 ( Uauliat lutcinia ). 



