86 A HAND -LIST OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



coasts England as far as Yorks., north of which, as well as on west 

 side England north of Bristol Channel and in Wales, it is rarely 

 observed. In southern counties of England, and especially in 

 Cornwall and Devon, winters regularly, but elsewhere only rarely 

 found in winter. Reports of breeding are not substantiated. 

 Scotland. Rare and irregular passage-migrant to east coast as far 

 north as Pentland Skerries (Orkneys) (twice), Orkneys (twice), 

 and Fair Isle (five times). On western side rare straggler: 

 Sol way (twice), Clyde (once). In 0. Hebrides, four times 

 Flannans and once South Uist. Once Tiree. Ireland. Fairly 

 regular autumn and occasional spring passage -migrant in south 

 and south-east. Rare elsewhere. Occasionally in winter. 



DISTRIBUTION. Abroad. Europe from Baltic to Mediterranean, 

 east to Roumania and Bulgaria. Wintering partly in Europe, 

 but mostly in Africa. Casual in Scandinavia, once Finland. Re- 

 placed by a number of rather different forms in Caucasus, Armenia, 

 Persia, Syria, Transcaspia to Turkestan, Altai and Sayan Moun- 

 tains, central Asia generally and parts of the Himalayas to Tibet 

 and Mongolia. 



LUSCINIA MEGARHYNCHA 



1 80. Luscinia megarhyncha megarhyncha Brehm - THE 

 NIGHTINGALE. 



LTJSCINIA MEGARHYNCHOS Brehm, Handb. Naturg. Vog. Deutschl., p. 356 



(1831 Germany). 



Daulias luscinia* (Linnaeus), Yarrell, i, p. 312 ; Saunders, p. 39. 



DISTRIBUTION. England and Wales. Summer-resident (April to 

 mid-Sept.). Generally distributed in suitable places and locally 

 numerous south and east of a line joining Wash and Severn, except 

 in Cornwall and extreme w r est Somerset, where it is absent, and in 

 Devon, where it is confined to river-valleys a short distance inland 

 from south coast as far west as the Dart. In Hereford, Monmouth, 

 and Glamorgan confined to southern river- valleys. North and west 

 of above-mentioned line becomes rapidly scarce, and is only 

 regular and at all numerous in river-valleys, and is sporadic and 

 uncertain in south Staffs., Salop, and south Derby., and only 

 occasional in Cheshire and the extreme east of Brecon, Montgomery, 

 Denbigh, and Flint. On east side locally not uncommon in Leicester, 

 Notts., and Lines., but thins out northwards and breeds irregularly 

 in southern parts of the eastern and south-eastern portions of West 

 Yorks., and sporadically in eastern half of North Yorks. Records 

 of vagrants from Carmarthen, Cardigan, Lanes. (?), Durham, and 

 Northumberland (cf. Brit. B., v, pp. 2-21). Scotland. One, Isle 



* The specific name luscinia originally referred to the Thrush-Nightingale 

 or Sprosser, and cannot, therefore, be used for our Nightingale ! See, among 

 others, Sharpe, Handlist, iv, p. 153. E.H. 



