NESTS, EGGS, AND FOOD. 33 



About a week after the arrival of the female birds, says 

 Audubon, the male Nightingales first seen are mated, and 

 a spot has been chosen for the nest. The situations of 

 their choice are generally in the interior of close thickets, 

 but not unfrequently also at the roots of the thick- sets 

 of hedge-rows. The colour of the materials employed 

 in the composition of the nest, and even that of the eggs, 

 is in accordance with the dull reddish-brown garb of the 

 bird itself. The whole of this fabric may be said to be of 

 a rather rude construction, it being large, loosely put to- 

 gether externally, and scantily lined. The outer layer is 

 usually composed of the dried leaves of various trees of 

 the previous season, extending at times in a loose manner 

 to the distance of several inches from the proper nest. 

 The latter is cup-shaped, with its cavity about four inches 

 in breadth, and nearly as much in depth, formed of dry 

 fibrous roots of small size, now and then interwoven with 

 a few loose leaves. The eggs are from four to six, rather 

 large for the bird, three quarters of an inch in length, 

 seven twelfths in breadth, and of a pale brownish colour. 

 The parent birds incubate alternately, although the female 

 spends more time on the eggs than the male. Young 

 Nightingales, like most young birds of their tribe, are at 

 first fed on macerated substances, for eight or ten days, 

 after which they receive small larvae, worms, and insects. 



Sweet says that the food of this bird consists entirely of 

 insects of various sorts, but it prefers the eggs of the ant 

 to any other. It is also very fond of the larvae of wasps 

 and hornets. Without such food, it is almost impossible 

 to keep it alive in confinement. Chopped or shredded raw 

 meat is the best substitute for that, but it will not do so well. 



Let us here enter our protest against the barbarous 

 custom which prevails to some extent among bird-fanciers, 

 of putting out the eyes of the Nightingale, in order that it 

 may, unscared or unattracted by the objects around it, 

 give its whole attention to the utterance of sweet melody. 

 Poor bird ! well may the strains of such be sad and com- 

 plaining, as the poets feign was that of the daughter of 

 Pandion, when deprived of her silver-sounding tongue. 



Mr. H. W. Dixon, of the l Mark Lane Express/ has 



