PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 345 



2-3. Distribution and Migration. As above stated, this form occurs in 

 Great Britain only as a bird of passage in autumn and spring. Its distribution 

 is described on p. 343. [F. c. B. J.] 



NIGHTINGALE [Luscinia megarhynchos (Brehm.). Daulias luscinia (L.). 

 French, rossignol ; German, Nachtigall ; Italian, rusignolo]. 



1. Description. This species may readily be distinguished by the uniform 

 russet colour of the upper parts, and the pale chestnut tone. (PL 46.) The sexes 

 are alike in plumage, and have the whole of the upper parts of a uniform russet- 

 brown hue, shading into pale chestnut on the upper tail-coverts and tail ; in the 

 latter, however, the two middle feathers are brown. The throat is white, the sides 

 of the neck, the fore-breast and flanks are ashy grey faintly tinged with brown, 

 while the middle of the breast and abdomen are white, and the under tail-coverts 

 buff. Length of male, 6.5 in. [145 mm.]. The juvenile fledgling plumage differs from 

 that of the adult in being conspicuously rufous above, relieved by buff spots. On 

 the crown these are well defined, less so on the back where each feather has a narrow 

 free edge of black. The tail is redder than in the adult. The under parts are 

 white, tinged on the throat and flanks with buff. The throat feathers have narrow 

 free edges of black forming more or less conspicuous transverse bars ; similar, 

 but wider and more conspicuous, semi-crescentic bars mark the fore-breast. The 

 flanks are slightly tinged buff and indistinctly mottled black. The lesser wing- 

 coverts, it should be noted, have large buff spots margined with black, while the 

 major coverts are tipped with buff, and the inner secondaries have faint buff tips, 

 [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. A summer visitor to the southern part of Great Britain 

 and to the Continent from the North Sea and Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean. 

 East of Germany and Hungary its breeding limits extend to parts of Poland, South- 

 west Russia, the Crimea, and Asia Minor, while southward its range extends to the 

 islands of the Mediterranean and North-west Africa. In Great Britain it is generally 

 distributed through all the country lying south and east of a line drawn from the 

 Wash to the Severn, with the exception of Cornwall and Devon (except on the 

 south-east side), and Somerset, where it is still local and thinly distributed. Beyond 

 this line it occurs in South, but is scarce in North, Lincoln. It is common in 

 Rutland, thinly distributed in Leicester and Warwick, but scarce in the north 

 of the latter county : fairly general in Worcester, but local in Hereford and Mon- 

 mouth, while in Glamorgan it is confined to the eastern half. Scattered pairs nest 



2Y 



