62 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



plentiful, that when the wind was in a cold quarter I seldom 

 heard their song, and when I did so, it was rather to be called 

 a chirping and twittering than a song. And here in Yorkshire, 

 both last year and this, when I have heard the song it has been 

 on an exceptionally warm evening, for here we have seldom 

 any wind but an E. or N.E. from the first of April to the 

 middle of June. I am inclined to think, therefore, that the 

 Nightingale may be much more common in these parts than 

 is usually supposed, but that the evenings are rarely warm 

 enough to induce them to sing before the beginning or middle 

 of June, by which time I imagine they have young, and 

 the parents have ceased singing. I was struck with this 

 idea especially one evening in June 1879. I heard, about 

 9 p.m., a Nightingale singing very clearly in a tree by 

 the road side, and listened to it for some ten minutes ; 

 I then went to a friend's house in order to bring other 

 persons to listen to it ; however, I stayed in the friend's 

 house about an hour or more before we set off to listen 

 to our songster, and by this time, i.e. n or 11-30 p.m., 

 the wind had changed into a cold quarter, and not even a 

 chirp or a twitter could we hear." 



In mid-Holderness, in the neighbourhood of Beverley, 

 Beverley R. Morris, writing in the Zoologist (1846, p. 1298), 

 stated, on the authority of a friend, that five or six years 

 before (about 1840), some half-a-dozen specimens were shot 

 or trapped in a thickety wood near this town, called Burton 

 Bushes. There could be no doubt about the identity of the 

 species, as the birds were heard singing when alive, and 

 examined when dead, by persons well acquainted with them. 

 The recorder concluded with the remark, " I am sorry to say, 

 it has never, as far as I can learn, appeared here since." 

 Mr. F. Boyes has furnished the following interesting notes 

 on its occurrence in the Beverley district. " The Nighingale, 

 as you know, is an irregular summer visitor to this part of 

 the county, in some years spread over a considerable area, 

 and at other times entirely absent. I scarcely know how 

 to account for this uncertainty in occupying its previous 



