54 THE NIGHTINGALE. 



live within reach of its melody ; and there are 

 multitudes, even in this country, who have never 

 heard the liquid notes of the nightingale, poured 

 forth from woods and thickets in those calm, 

 sweet evenings we sometimes enjoy in the latter 

 part of April and May. Though well known 

 to the inhabitants of the southern, eastern, and 

 midland counties of England, it is rarely seen 

 in the northern parts of the island, nor so far 

 west as Devonshire and Cornwall Neither is 

 it met with in many parts of the Principality of 

 Wales. Even the fertile and richly wooded 

 Glamorganshire, which seems to abound in such 

 retreats as the nightingale would select, is rarely 

 visited by this most accomplished melodist of 

 the groves. 



The nightingale is a bird of passage. It 

 comes to us about the middle of April, and re- 

 mains till the autumn, when the coldness of the 

 atmosphere, and deficiency of food, warn it to 

 take its flight to other countries. It then passes 

 over to Africa. Some nightingales retire into 

 Barbary ; others take up their winter abode in 

 Lower Egypt. Sonnini has seen several during 

 the winter, feeding in the fertile plains of the 

 Delta; and has also been eye-witness of their 

 passage through some of the Islands of the 

 Archipelago. So powerfully is the impulse to 



