NIGHTINGALE. 323 



incubation, they would return in the following season to 

 their birth-place. Impressed with this belief, Sir John 

 Sinclair, Bart., long known for his patriotism, commissioned 

 the late Mr. Dickson of Covent Garden to purchase for 

 him as many Nightingales' eggs as he could procure, at a 

 shilling each. This was accordingly done ; the eggs care- 

 fully packed in wool, and transmitted to Sir John by the 

 mail. Sir John employed several men to find, and take 

 care of, the nests of several Robins, in places where the 

 eggs might be deposited and hatched with security. The 

 Robins' eggs were removed, and replaced by those of the 

 Nightingale, which were all sat upon, hatched in due 

 time, and the young brought up by the foster-parents. 

 The songsters flew when fully fledged, and were observed 

 for some time afterwards near the places where they 

 were incubated. In September, the usual migratory 

 period, they disappeared, but never returned to the place 

 of their birth." 



The following observations on the breeding of the 

 Nightingale in confinement by H. Hanley, Sergeant- 

 Major of the 1st Life Guards, were communicated to 

 the Zoological Society, and read there in June, 1851 : 



" Being of opinion that any bird which breeds in this 

 country in a wild state, might, by studying its habits, be 

 brought to do so in a state of captivity, I made prepara- 

 tions during the winter of 1841, for trying the Nightingale, 

 which I considered to be the most retired in its habits of 

 any of our summer visitants. I had a cage made four 

 feet long by three feet high, the back, ends, and top solid, 

 with a wire front, in which I placed a small Scotch fir- 

 tree, planted in a flower -pot ; to each end of the cage I 

 attached a common-sized canary's breeding-cage, commu- 

 nicating with the large cage by a hole about four inches 

 square. I broke up a new birch broom, and filled the 



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