go WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



As summer visitants, nightingales come to this 

 country with the res t of the warblers . Though the bird 

 has but a limited range, it is not uncommon in the 

 southern counties, and its distribution is gradually 

 extending. 



About twenty miles north of York shows the ex- 

 treme northerly limit of the nightingale in this 

 country a condition probably regulated and de- 

 nned by its food supply. Bands of emigrants reach 

 our southern shores from the beginning to the end 

 of April the males arriving ten or twelve days in 

 advance of the females, and beginning to sing im- 

 mediately they become dispersed in their haunts. 

 These localities are always on the lap of cultivation, 

 wooded tracts with thick undergrowth being requisite 

 to an abundant supply of food. Consequently, 

 sheltered copses, woods, secluded gardens, shady 

 lanes, with hedgerows and plantations, are retreats 

 sought out by the birds. Now it is that the pairing 

 commences, and the woods are flooded with song. 

 Probably the singing by day is as frequent as by 

 night, but during the latter season it becomes 

 more noticeable, owing to the cessation of rural 

 sounds and rural sights being shut out. And 

 the cessation of these may have an effect upon 

 the warbler itself, as they certainly have upon the 

 listener. It is then that the bird would seem to 

 become intoxicated, and to pour out its warblings 



