SIS 



NIGHTINGALE. 



which does not show more differences in this respect 

 than the nightingale. 



It' we can draw any conclusions with regard to the 

 habits of birds in a state of nature from what we can 

 observe in a state of confinement, we should not be 

 inclined to reckon the nightingale as coining under 

 the description of a night bird in any of the ordinary 

 senses of that term. In confinement it is so far from 

 being a lover of the dark, that it is impatient of a 

 dingy or gloomy apartment, and it is equally impa- 

 tient of impure air the favourable spot for its cage 

 being a cheerful one near an open window ; and it 

 languishes in health, and the colour of its plumage 

 fades, if it is kept in the dark. These are certainly 

 anything but characteristics of a bird which loves 

 darkness, though we never can draw perfectly satis- 

 factory conclusions from observations made upon 

 birds unnaturally kept in cages, because in this state 

 those seasonal changes which have so powerful an j 

 influence in the economy of the bird do not, and can- '. 

 not, operate. If the bird is, like the nightingale, a j 

 migrant, the cutting it off from its migration, and its ! 

 changes of climate, must, to a considerable extent, 

 affect the whole of its economy, because there are 

 circumstances in the transference of the bird from 

 climate to climate which cannot be compensated by ! 

 any regulation of artificial temperature. There is 

 also the grand change from the free air of heaven 

 to a grated prison in a limited apartment, and this ' 

 would be of itself enough to change the habits of 

 most animals. If, therefore, we wish to obtain correct 

 knowledge respecting the nightingale of nature, we i 

 must observe it pursuing its natural instincts in its ' 

 own way. 



The peculiar manner in which the nightingale is ' 

 localised shows us that natural circumstances have 

 fur more influence upon it than they have upon most 

 other birds which pass over the same range in their ; 

 migrations. Most of our other summer birds, in so 

 far as they do come, come pretty indiscriminately to 

 surfaces of which the sub-soils are different, though 

 each bird selects a particular kind of surface, or 

 surface-vegetation, as more exclusively and appro- 

 priately its own. The nightingale, however, misses 

 large patches of those countries which it visits in the 

 summer, and there is always something peculiar in 

 the subsoil of these places. It is rare upon the clays, 

 and never found upon the moor or the marsh, though, 

 in situations favourable to it, it is most plentiful near 

 the banks of streams and rivers. It does not appear, 

 however, to have any particular partiality for the 

 water, but only for the rich and close vegetation 

 which is found near the banks of streams, and other 

 clear and wholesome water, or perhaps rather for the 

 insect food with which such places abound. 



It. is not a bird of the depths of the tangled forests, 

 or found far in the interior of an extensive wood. 

 The air of such a situation is neither favourable to 

 the nightingale nor to that upon which the nightingale 

 feeds ; and it is o.ne of the striking adaptations in 

 nature that the effect of natural circumstances upon 

 a bird is to impel it to that place where its food is 

 best and most abundant ; and such is the power of 

 this, that there are some birds sent full five thousand 

 miles, and back again, in the course of every season, 

 chiefly by this means. 



They appear to migrate farther northward in lati- 

 tude in proportion as the summer is more dry ; for 

 they reach much farther north in continental Europe j 



than they do in Britain ; and farther still in Siberia 

 than in western Europe. With us they do not reach 

 any part of the country which can be considered 

 decidedly hilly, and rainy in summer ; and the places 

 which they miss, or where their numbers are com- 

 paratively few, are always more subject to showers 

 than those in which they are abundant. In those 

 parts of England where nightingales are most com- 

 mon, and where the soil and the surface are a good 

 deal diversified, places may be observed ts which 

 summer clouds frequently find their wav, and pour 

 down rain when there is none in richer places at no 

 great distance, and it will be found that the song 

 of the nightingale is very rarely heard in those places, 

 though it may be abundant a very little way off. In 

 this way the nightingale becomes a very excellent 

 index to the summer character, at least of those 

 districts which it visits ; and, as the summer charac- 

 ter of places is really the important one, the nightin- 

 gale is of no inconsiderable use as a guide in topo- 

 graphical knowledge. In districts near London, the 

 cold gravel-caped heights, the clayey bottoms, which 

 retain stagnant water, and close woods of consider- 

 able extent, are the chief places which attract the 

 summer showers, and they are places of which the 

 absence of the nightingale gives warning. 



It is quite natural to expect that we should get 

 some topographical information from this bird, be- 

 cause it appears to be one of the most sensitive of 

 the feathered race that journeys into such climates 

 as ours ; and what we see on a small scale in our own 

 diversified country, we can infer on a large scale with 

 regard to foreign countries. Nor is it difficult to see 

 the reason why the nightingale should avoid places 

 where there is much humidity, and where the ground 

 is sterile if high, and the vegetation is rank if low 

 lying. Soft caterpillars and soft insects are the princi- 

 pal food of the nightingale ; and these are always abun- 

 dant in proportion as, with an equal store of vegeta- 

 tion, the place or the season is dry. The winds, or more 

 strictly speaking the weather, during which the leaves 

 of our trees arid hedges suffer so much from the larva; 

 of insects, are always dry ; rain coming in time in a 

 great measure prevents the injury, and checks it evpn 

 when it has proceeded to rather serious lengths. On 

 these, and many other points connected with the pro- 

 ductions of the earth, the places most favourable for 

 those productions, arid their healthiness or unhealthi- 

 ness during the particular season, the song of the 

 nightingale may thus be turned to an artificial me- 

 mory of no small value ; and while its evening or its 

 morning notes delight our ears, we may readily make 

 it the means of informing our minds. With us the 

 nightingale does not make its appearance very early, 

 neither does it stay very late. The time differs a 

 little with the season in every country ; and the more 

 northerly the country is, the arrival is always the 

 later and the departure the earlier. Of course, the 

 variations of the different years alter the time of the 

 coming of this, and of all migratory birds ; but, in 

 those which stay for so limited a period as the night- 

 ingale, the extreme limit of the variation in time docs 

 not generally exceed a fortnight or three weeks. 



Thfy arrive in Italy generally during March, in 

 the middle of Germany about the middle of April, 

 in England towards the end of the same month j 

 and they generally reach the extreme limit of their' 

 migration before the middle of May. In departing 

 southward, September may be said to answer to April, 



