160 Midland Village: Railway and Woodland. 



arm and tried for another interview, which no 

 doubt he would have given me, if I had not been 

 obliged to depart in order to catch a train to 

 Oxford. This bird was undoubtedly a male who 

 was awaiting the arrival of the females : just at 

 this time they not only betray themselves more 

 easily by the loudness of their reel, but also are 

 well known to be less shy of showing themselves 

 than at any other period of their stay with us. 

 This is the case with most of our summer 

 migrants. Only a few minutes before I found 

 this bird, I had been watching a newly-arrived 

 cock Nightingale, who had not yet found his 

 mate, and was content to sing to me from the 

 still leafless bough of an oak-tree, without any 

 of the shyness he would have shown two or three 

 weeks later. 



We have every spring a few pairs of Nightin- 

 gales in our woods. Except when a wood has 

 been cleared of its undergrowth, they may always 

 be found in the same places, and if the accus- 

 tomed pair is missing in one it is almost sure to 

 be found in another. The edge of a wood is the 

 favourite place, because the bird constantly seeks 



