NIGHTINGALE. 



of defiance. Colonel Montagu took a nest of young Night- 

 ingales early in June, and placing them in a cage, observed 

 that the parent birds fed them principally with small green 

 caterpillars. The adult birds feed on insects of various 

 sorts, flies, moths, spiders, and earwigs. 



When we consider that this bird extends its visits 

 during the summer as far north as Russia and Sweden, 

 its very limited range in this country is unaccountable. 

 It is found in Sussex, Hampshire, Dorsetshire, and the 

 eastern part of Devonshire, along the line of our south 

 coast. It has been heard about Tinmouth and Exmouth, 

 but not in Cornwall. In north Devon it has been heard 

 at Honiton and Barnstaple. A gentleman of Gower, 

 which is the peninsula beyond Swansea, procured from 

 Norfolk and Surrey, a few years back, some scores of 

 young Nightingales, hoping that an acquaintance with 

 his beautiful woods and their mild climate would induce 

 a second visit; but the law of Nature was too strong 

 for him, and not a single bird returned. Dyer, in his 

 Grongar Hill, makes the Nightingale a 'companion of 

 liis muse in the Vale of Towey or Carmarthen ; but this 

 is a poetical licence, as the bird is not heard there. The 

 Nightingale has not hitherto been heard in any part of 

 Ireland. 



In a note by Mr. Blyth, in an edition of White's Sel- 

 borne, it is observed, " The Nightingale, I think, appears 

 to migrate almost due north and south, deviating but a 

 very little, indeed, either to the right or left. There are 

 none in Brittany, nor in the Channel Islands, Jersey, 

 Guernsey, &c.; and the most westward of them probably 

 cross the Channel at Cape La Hogue, arriving on the 

 coast of Dorsetshire, and thence apparently proceeding 

 northward, rather than dispersing towards the west; so 

 that they are only known as accidental stragglers a little 



VOL. i. Y 



