XXX. NIGHTINGALE. 



(Daulias luscinia.) 



THE illustration is a sketch from life done in the Zoological 

 Gardens, London, some years ago. It was easier to get near it 

 there than when flying about the hedges in England, although I 

 have been close enough to one near Canterbury to observe how 

 it swelled out its throat when singing. I have seen and heard 

 many a one since then. At a villa near Florence, where I was 

 staying, one came to a bush near my window and sang every 

 fine night in May. At Giandola, a small town on the way from 

 the Eiviera to Turin, they positively swarmed, and never ceased 

 their songs day or night. In the midst of their music I chanced 

 to hear a Blackbird singing, and did not feel inclined to make an 

 invidious comparison. 



I have perched the Nightingale on an olive, as it was the 

 commonest tree there. It was about the last week in May, and 

 the natives were busy gathering the ripe black fruit, whipping 

 down the berries with long sticks from the branches which they 

 could not reach by climbing. Sheets were spread under the trees 

 to receive them, and the women collected them in baskets. They 

 were afterwards crushed by a millstone to extract the oil. 



Lady Margaret Cameron of Locheil has kindly sent me the 

 following : 



"Memorandum made in 1889. 



" ACHNACARY. 



" A Nightingale was heard for three weeks, and also seen, during 

 the month of June 1889. Thermometer 90 in the shade in May. 

 Very hot all May, June, and July, but cold and wet in the south and 

 east of England." 



E 65 



