358 



THE NIGHTINGALE. 



eater, and has been seen in the act of eating "blackheart" cherries, 

 plucking them from the tree and carrying them to its young.^ In captivity 

 it is best fed upon mealworms, raw beef scraped with a knife and given 

 very fresh, hard-boiled egg and water, all mixed into a kind of paste. 



As is well known, the song of the Nightingale is mostly uttered after 

 sunset, but the bird may be heard in full song throughout the day. 

 Toward the end of June, when the young birds are hatched, the song 

 changes into a kind of rough croaking sound, which is uttered by way 

 of warning, and accompanied with a sharp snapping sound of the beak. 



The time when the Nightingales 

 sing loudest and most constantly 

 is during the week or two after 

 their arrival, for they are then 

 engaged in attracting their mates, 

 and sing in fierce rivalry of each 

 other, hoping to fascinate their 

 brides by the splendor of their 

 voices. When once the bird has 

 procured a partner, he becomes 

 deeply attached to her, and if 

 he should be captured soon pines 

 away and dies, full of sorrowful 

 remembrances. The bird-deal- 

 ers are therefore anxious to 

 catch the Nightingale before 

 the first week has elapsed, as 

 they can then, by dint of care 

 and attention, preserve the bird 

 in full song to a very late period. 

 Mr. Yarrell mentions an instance 

 upon a hundred and fourteen suc- 



The Nightingale {Luscinia Philomela) 



Nightingale san^ 



where a caged 

 cessive days. 



The nest of the Nightingale is always placed upon or very near the 

 ground, and is generally carefully hidden beneath heavy foliage. One 

 such nest that I discovered in Wiltshire was placed among the knotted 

 and gnarled roots of an old ivy-covered thorn-stump that still main- 

 tained its place within a yard of a footpath. The nest is made of grass 

 and leaves, and is of exceedingly slight construction— so slight, indeed, 

 that to remove it without damage is a very difhcult process, and requires 

 the careful use of the hands. The eggs are generally four, but some- 

 times five, in number, and are of a peculiar smooth olive-brown, which 

 distinguishes them at once from the egg of any other British bird of 

 the same size. 



The color of the Nightingale is a rich hair-brown upon the upper 



