82 Nightingales in Song-time 



warmth. For though the nightingale haunts a shaded 

 soil, where its food of worms and insects abounds, it 

 is fond of a delicate and tempered air ; it is almost as 

 little of a true marsh bird as a dweller on the high, 

 dry hills. 



As is the general but by no means invariable rule 

 with birds which have great gifts of song, the 

 nightingale's plumage is plain and sober. It is not 

 difficult to get a view of the bird while it sings ; for 

 although it nests in dense, bushy places, and sings 

 in the neighbourhood of its nest, it is fond of mount- 

 ing for song to some spray in the upper and clearer 

 part of the thicket, where it can often be watched 

 for some time before it takes alarm and slips back 

 into denser cover. Yet, in spite of its modest hues 

 of brown above and pale grey beneath, only relieved 

 by a warmer touch of russet about the tail, there is 

 distinction in the nightingale's appearance. Though 

 it is a good deal smaller than a thrush or a 

 blackbird, it has just so much advantage of size 

 over most other birds of the thicket as serves to 

 attract attention ; and the quiet, clean contrast of 

 its plumage is itself attractive. It has also a notice- 

 ably large and intelligent head and eye ; and this is 

 one point in which it displays its close relationship 

 to the robin and the various species of thrush. At 

 first sight the family likeness between the nightin- 

 gale and the robin is obscured by the difference of 

 their habits ; for the nightingale is nearly as retiring, 

 except when it is transported by song, as the robin 

 is confident and obtrusive. Yet when the nightin- 

 gale is seen lightly hopping among the branches of 



