MIGRATION OF NIGHTINGALES. 37 



very desirous of introducing these birds on his estate, 

 in a northern part of the kingdom, commissioned a 

 person in London to purchase as many Nightingales' 

 eggs as he could procure at a shilling each. This 

 was done accordingly ; they were carefully packed 

 in wool, and forwarded by the mail. In the mean 

 time, men had been employed to find, and take care 

 of several Robin Redbreasts' nests, in places where 

 they might hatch securely. The eggs were then 

 placed under the Robins, by whom the young 

 Nightingales were successfully reared, and remained 

 in the neighbourhood till the usual time for migra- 

 tion; when it is supposed they went away, as they 

 were not seen again after that period, and not one 

 was known to return to the place of its birth. It 

 has been suggested by others, that being a delicate 

 bird, and little calculated to endure the fatigue of 

 long flights, they migrated from the Continent, only 

 to the eastern coast of England, and then gradually 

 journeyed inland ; and consequently, that this would 

 account for their not being seen in Cornwall, and 

 some of the other western parts of England. But 

 in reply to this, it should be remembered, that the 

 eastern flight across the channel, unless they all 

 embarked at Calais for the coasts of Essex and 

 Kent, is as wide as that between the western coasts 

 of France, where they are plentiful, and the corre- 

 sponding coasts of England, which they do not visit'"". 

 The NighiDgale stands Unrivalled at the head of 

 our singing birds, and may be called, as old Izaak 

 Walton, the angler, terms them, " chiefest of the 

 little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth 

 * See p. 103, vol. i. 



