BIRDS BROWN ABOVE AND 

 WHITE BELOW. 



NIGHTINGALE. Plate 24. Length, 6} inches. 

 Upper parts plain ruddy- brown, ruddier on the tail 

 and duskier on the larger wing-feathers ; under parts 

 grayish-white, suffused with brown on the breast 

 and sides. Summer migrant. 



Eggs. 4-6, plain olive-brown, but, exceptionally, 

 blue-green, mottled with reddish-brown ; '8 * '6 inch 

 (plate 124). 



Nest. Of dead leaves, lined with fine grass, and 

 placed on the ground among undergrowth or in 

 hedge-packing. 



Distribution. In England not passing west of 

 Devonshire, and rarely straggling as far north 

 as Cheshire and Yorkshire ; in Wales limited to 

 Brecon and Glamorganshire ; unknown in Scotland 

 or Ireland. 



The Nightingale appears at the woodside, in tangled 

 hedgerows or thickets, about the third week in April, 

 when its song, especially in the quiet hours after 

 sundown, takes the ear by its exquisitely finished 

 melody. Those who would know the Nightingale in 

 summer should attend to the Redbreast in winter. 

 Although duller in his olive back, brighter in his 

 scarlet stomacher, and more rotund in person, the 

 Redbreast by his gestures declares his close kinship 

 with the Nightingale. The sudden hops and pauses 



