Nightingales in Song-time 81 



points on the south coast, nightingales on their 

 northward migration cross the seas at their narrow- 

 est point and pour from the Continent into Kent. 

 Hence they distribute themselves fan-wise over 

 England, their numbers being gradually reduced 

 after they reach a certain distance from their point 

 of entry in the extreme south-east. The limits of 

 their range are roughly represented by a line drawn 

 directly from the mouth of the Exe, through Eastern 

 Glamorganshire, to Shrewsbury, and thence in a 

 curve through Derby to York. But it is only in the 

 south-eastern third of this area that they are really 

 common birds. In the Thames basin they abound 

 in suitable ground ; but in the lower Severn valley, 

 though they can hardly be called rare, a nightingale 

 singing on the skirts of a village or town is a visitor 

 of note, and evening by evening draws groups of 

 listeners to its haunt. This line drawn through 

 England is the north-western limit of a wide Euro- 

 pean summer range. In winter nightingales with- 

 draw to the interior of Africa ; and when they move 

 northward again in spring a few halt for nesting as 

 far to the southward as Algeria, which appears to be 

 the southern limit of their breeding-range. The 

 nightingale of the classics, which is still so abundant 

 in Italy in spring, is the same species as our own ; 

 but in Germany it meets the larger northern 

 nightingale, called by the Germans the " sprosser," 

 which has lately been observed for the first time as a 

 visitor to English soil. Possibly the nightingale is 

 prevented from ranging more widely across Britain 

 by the heavier rainfall as much as by the loss of 

 6 



