THE NIGHTINGALE 



(Erithacus luscinia) 



THE affinity of this soberly dressed little bird with the 

 brightly attired Eobin is not at all generally known or 

 suspected. Yet when the young naturalist comes to study 

 the habits of the two species he will find much in common 

 between them. True, the sweet -voiced Nightingale is a 

 summer visitor to this country, whilst the Eobin is a resident 

 species ; yet we know the same anomaly exists between two 

 such closely related birds as the Song Thrush and the Eed- 

 wing. The Nightingale must certainly be classed with our 

 rarer birds, as it is to be found in only a limited portion of 

 the British Islands. This favoured district is principally in 

 the south-east of England, and even there the Nightingale is 

 somewhat capricious in its choice of a haunt. The Nightin- 

 gale is one of spring's first harbingers, and arrives in its old 

 summer haunts about the middle of April. I have known it 

 visit this country as early as the fifth of that month, a bird 

 killing itself on that day by flying against a lighthouse on 

 the south coast. It takes the bird about a fortnight to reach 

 its northern haunts, so that we in South Yorkshire do not 

 meet with it as a rule before the first few days of May. The 

 Nightingale migrates by day as well as by night ; and I have 

 met with this little bird in the middle of the Mediterranean 

 steadily flying north over the trackless waves in company 

 with Turtle Doves. On the 21st of April 1882 a Nightingale 



