72 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 



fair idea of its general form and proportions and also of 

 its simple colouring. It is a little over seven inches long 

 and is a slender, delicately made bird with close plumage. 

 The brown of the upper surface is greyer in some speci- 

 mens and redder in others, the tail being always reddest ; 

 the bill and feet are a sort of horny flesh-colour. Altogether 

 the Nightingale is a very hard bird to describe ; but the 

 very absence of any special feature its well-balanced 

 proportions and unrelieved soberness of colour makes 

 it not difficult to recognize when once seen. And no 

 other bird at all resembling it is commonly caged. The 

 hen is just like the cock ; but young birds will probably 

 be found to be spotted with buff, like the young of the 

 European bird. 



A considerable number of these birds are brought down 

 yearly from Cabul for sale in Calcutta, where they fetch 

 very high prices, from fifty to four hundred rupees. The 

 hens, of course, are almost valueless, and as the sexes 

 are so difficult to distinguish, it is necessary, when buying 

 a Nightingale, to hear the bird sing one's self, and also 

 to make sure that the bird one sees really is the performer ; 

 as there is a trick of showing, and selling, the intending 

 purchaser a hen, while a cock is singing behind a curtain ! 

 The song of the Persian Nightingale, judging from a very 

 fine bird of Mr. Ezra's which I have heard, is much stronger 

 than that of the European Nightingale, but less sweet 

 in tone. The birds sing well in captivity in the winter 

 and spring months, and will live for years, but need great 

 care. The satoo given them must be of the best, and 

 carefully prepared, and insects must always be liberally 



