

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



101 



The price of nightingales for turning out in copses is thirty 

 shillings a dozen, cocks and hens. When " meated off," and 

 properly caged, a nightingale is worth from five shillings to one 

 guinea, according to the quality of the song. 



Mr. Keilich tells me that in Germany there are two kinds of 

 nightingales. The larger is called a " sprossen." In size it is be- 

 tween the nightingale and thrush. These sprossens are com- 

 mon all down the Danube, and the Vistula districts. There is a 

 great number of them about Vienna. These birds are brought to 

 Kiigland from Austria by the German bird dealers; they are 

 known to the English bird-catchers as the thrush nightingale. 

 The song is extraordinarily powerful, but its quality is not 

 nearly so good as the British birds. The sprossen is very 

 seldom caught in England, and is not found in France. The 

 noise which White describes as " snapping or cracking " is 

 called by the English bird-catchers " wheeling and kurring," the 

 word sounds," Kur-r-r, kur-r-r, kur-r,' 1 repeated three times, then 

 comes a sharp " wheet, wheet," like a very sharp whistle. Night- 

 ingales build their nests about a foot from the ground, in lanes 

 and thick hedgerows. The nests are made principally with 

 dried oakleaves, and lined with tine dried grass. These nests 

 when handled easily fall to pieces. The wheeling and kurring 

 is not intended for menace; this is to delude their enemies, and 

 entice them away from their nest. They will run and fly in 

 front of a man along a low hedgerow. When they have enticed 

 a man away from the nest, they will dart through the hedge 

 and instantly double back to their nest. They are very cunning 

 in building. Like other birds they are not frightened at cattle. 

 They only wheet and kurr to mankind. No bird has any fear 

 or dread of cattle. Nightingales are wonderful birds to run 

 (or rather hop) very quickly. Tie a nightingale's wings and 

 see if you can catch him. Nightingales' wings are always tied 

 by catchers, and kept tied for a week. The cocks are always 

 singing close to their nests, which are often near cottages. 



This year, 1875, two pairs of nightingales built at Highgate ; 

 one pair in the Baroness Burdett Coutts's grounds, and another 

 pair bred in the cemetery, on the opposite side of the lane. 

 Numbers of people went there to hear these birds sing. They 

 were both well looked after, and the young and old birds all 

 escaped the bird-catchers. Nightingales return every year to 

 the neighbourhood where they were born, and I hope, there- 

 fore, that they will again become abundant at Hampstead. 

 Lord Mansfield's woods at Hampstead have been preserved 

 the last three years, and it is not uncommon of a summer's 

 evening to hear twenty or thirty nightingales singing, especially 



