176 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



it seemed to have appropriated for the season. On the 

 northern side of this same Penyard I have never heard 

 the Nightingale, nor does it make its appearance there. 

 Moreover, it frequently affects one side of the river, while 

 shunning the other. I have friends living not five miles 

 off', but beyond the Wye, who will scarce give me credit 

 when I tell them that Nightingales sing all round my 

 house. They have never heard it on their side, and were 

 surprised to learn that the bird not only visits but breeds 

 in Herefordshire their native county ! 



With regard to the geographical range of the Nightin- 

 gale in our island, and the capriciousness above alluded 

 to, I have heard a theory advanced which seems worthy 

 of investigation. It is that the bird only frequents those 

 districts where the glow-worm is found. In the old red 

 sandstone of Herefordshire we have the lampyris nodiluca 

 in plenty ; and it is also abundant over the chalk forma- 

 tion of the Chiltern Hills, in Bucks, Berks, and Hertford- 

 shire, where Nightingales are most common. This seems 

 to favour the above theory, pointing to another fact 

 that the luminous insect may be the favourite food of 

 the nocturnal songster. 



THE MONTH OF BIRD-MUSIC. 



May is usually accounted the month when birds sing 

 their loudest and sweetest. However this may have 

 been in times past, certainly for the last four or five 

 years June better deserves the credit. And never one 

 more than this now present. There were May- days pre- 

 ceding when wood and field, copse and hedgerow, were 



