212 THE NIGHTINGALE. 



that wnich T have mentioned will have the satisfaction of finding their 

 nightingales healthy, cheerful, active, and good singers. 



I have already said that 1 have tried letting them run about the room, 

 feeding them upon the common universal paste; but this food is not suffi- 

 ciently nutritious for theui : on this diet they can hardly pass six months 

 without foiling into a decline, and they would inevitably perish if they were 

 not speedily restored to one which is fitter for them. They require fresh 

 water every day, as well for bathing as drinking: ihey habitually bathe, 

 when caged, after singing. They have also been observed to do so the first 

 thing in the evening, when the candles were lighted. 



Breeding. — Each nightingale has his little district ; and if in the pairing 

 season several males are found together, very angry battles take place, which 

 end in the flight of the weakest. The commonest quarrels of this kind are 

 between fathers and sons. The latter, having been born in the place, de- 

 termine to fix themselves in it ; all feeling of relationship is then e.xtin- 

 truished, and they are strangers ; the relations of father and son, those sweet 

 ties, hitherto so close, are suddenly broken, never more to be felt. 



The nest is built in a grove or orchard, among a heap of branches, or on 

 a thorn bush, or the trunk of a tree surrounded by briars ; or even on the 

 ground when it may be hid by tall grass or thick bushes. Its form is 

 simple and inartificial, on the outside dry leaves, on the inside hay, fine 

 roots, with the hair of animals, is all the apparatus. The female lays from 

 four to six eggs, of a brownish green, on which she sits a fortnight. The 

 young are fed with small caterpillars and butterflies. As the low position 

 of the nest exposes them to become the prey of carnivorous quadrupeds, 

 they soon quit it, even before they can fly. Their plumage before moulting 

 has no resemblance to that of the old birds except the red of the tail ; the 

 upper part of the body is of a reddish grey, spotted with yellowish white on 

 the head and coverts of the wings ; the under part is of a rusty yellow, 

 spotted on the breast with dark brown ; but after moulting the resemblance 

 is so perfect that they can hardly be distinguished. If, therefore, any of 

 these birds are caught towards the end of summer, they are carefully exa- 

 mined on the back of the head, round the eyes, and under the beak and 

 neck, for, provided there remains in these places a small feather, or mere 

 yellow point, it is sufficient to ascertain that they are young. As these are 

 the only means of judging, if no marks appear, it is necessary to wait for a 

 few days till the bird begins to sing. This, however, is not a sure sign, as 

 the young females sing as well as the males, till the month of April, though 

 in a weaker and more unconnected way, and without so visibly swelling 

 their throats : it is by these nice observations that connoisseurs succeed in 

 distinguishing them. It may also be remarked, as a help to those who wish 

 to rear nightingales, that, when in the nest, those which are marked with 

 white, and especially those which have a white throat, are males ; the reddest 

 and biownest being always females. The young, when taken, are fed with 

 ants' eggs mixed with white bread, grated and moistened. The males begin 

 to warble even before their tails are quite grown : if the father and mother 

 arc taken at the same time as the young ones, they will, when caged, con- 

 tinue to feed them as before. It is said that nightingales sometimes build 

 iu the bird room ; this, however, can only succeed by giving up to a tame 



