THE COMMON NIGHTINGALE. 43 



assistance her cry immediately brought her partner, who likewise seemed to be aware of the conse- 

 quences. To force it down they made several efforts, but in this they were unsuccessful. Strange to 

 tell, the male at length discovered the cause of the catastrophe. The part of the worm which by being 

 entangled among the feathers of the breast had been prevented from going down, he carefully disen- 

 "aed, and held it up with his bill, until, after the most unusual efforts, the young bird at length 

 swallowed it. But so much exhausted was it that it remained for nearly three hours without moving, 

 and with its eyes shut. The male, having alighted upon a tree a few yards from his nest, poured forth 

 some of his most enchanting notes, a song of rejoicing, no doubt, for the narrow escape from death 

 which one of his family had just made." 



The Blackbird, as its name implies, is entirely black, with an orange bill, and a ring of orange 

 round the eye. The female is brown, with a dark-brown, bill ; more or less rufous on the throat and 

 breast, which have black stripes. Varieties are often met with, especially some with white feathers 

 distributed among the black plumage, but these are not to be confounded with the Ring Ouzel (Turdus 

 torquatus), which is a summer visitant to England, and is distinguished by the broad white collar on 

 the breast. The latter bird has also a very distinct winter plumage, when the black feathers are 

 broadly edged with greyish- white. It should be added that very old Blackbirds have the feathers of 

 the hind neck tipped with fine hairs. 



Besides the true Thrushes, the sub-family Turdinse includes the Chats, represented in England by 

 the Wheatear, and the Redstarts. 



THE SECOND SUB-FAMILY OF THE TURDIDJE, OR THRUSHES. 

 THE WARBLERS (Sylfiinte). 



The young in first plumage are unspotted on the upper parts (except in those cases where the 

 adult birds are so also), and only in rare instances are traces of spots to be found on the breast. The 

 adult birds moult twice in the year, in spring and autumn, both moults being complete. Birds in first 

 plumage, having an opportunity of moulting in spring, do not require to moult in the first autumn, 

 and only renew a few feathers then. Consequently, there is frequently a difference, principally in the 

 colour of the under parts, between the young and the adult in winter plumage. So far as can be ascer- 

 tained the characters assigned to the Warblers are always associated with a scutellated tarsus.* 



THE COMMON NIGHTINGALE (Dauhas liiscinin). 



This, the most favourite Warbler of ancient and modern times, is a summer visitor to England, 

 retiring in winter to northern Africa, and even penetrating as far as the Gold Coast, in western Africa. 

 Mr. Dresser gives the following account of the species in his work on the " Birds of Europe": 



" This, the best known and most highly esteemed of our songsters, is essentially a bird of the 

 woodlands, and is always found in the gi'oves or woods on the plains, never in the mountains, or in 

 conifer woods, but in tolerably low, non-evergreen growth, where there is a fairly abundant under- 

 growth, and where the soil is rather damp, or where damp ditches or water is not far distant. It is a 

 very unobtrusive bird ; and although the song of the male may be heard daily, it is astonishing how 

 seldom a casual observer obtains a glimpse of the bird itself. The males arrive first in the spring, and 

 appear to be weary and travel- worn when they first appear; but they soon recuperate, and when, after 

 the lapse of a few days, the females commence to appear, they have recovered their usual sprightliness 

 and soon break out into their matchless song, which may be heard until the young are hatched. The 

 song of this bird is, with justice, considered to be the richest and most melodious of all our songsters ; 

 and it is impossible to reproduce its notes in words so as to give any idea of it. No bird has so 

 vnried and sweet a song, and it is so rich and full that one is astonished that it can be pi'oduced by so 

 small a bird. There is, however, much individual difference in the quality of the song of birds from 

 different localities, as is well known by all the bird fanciers, especially by the Germans; and Naumann 

 remarks that those from Poinerania are the worst songsters, whereas those from Worlitz in Anhalt 

 Dessau are the best he ever heard. As a rule, the Nightingale is not a shy bird ; and far from 

 shunning the presence of man, it appears in preference to take up its abode somewhere in the vicinity 

 of inhabited places. Nor is it a quarrelsome bird towards others of its own species, except during the 



* Seebohm. 



