NIGHTINGALK. I07 



Sing before the beginning or middle of June, by which time I 

 imagine they have young and the parents have ceased singing. 

 I was struck with this idea especially one evening in Jnne, 1879. 

 I heard, about 9 p.m., a Nightingale singing very clearly in a 

 tree by the road side and listened to it for some ten minutes ; I 

 then went to a friend's house in order to bring other persons to 

 listen to it ; however, I stayed in the friend's house about an hour 

 or more before we set off to listen to our songster and by this 

 time, i.e., 11 or 11-30 p.m., the wind had changed into a cold 

 quarter, and not even a chirp or a twitter could we hear.' 



In mid-Holderness, in the neighbourhood of Beverley, Mr. 

 Beverley R. Morris writing in 1846 (Zool. iv., 1298) informed us, 

 on the authority of a friend, that five or six years before [about 

 1840] some half-a-dozen specimens were shot or trapped in a 

 thickety wood near this town, called Burton Bushes. There 

 could be no doubt about the identity of the species, as the birds 

 were heard singing when alive, and examined when dead, by 

 persons well acquainted with them. Mr. Morris concludes with 

 the remark 'I am sorry to say, it has never, as far as I can learn, 

 appeared here since.' My friend, Mr. F. Boyes, has kindly 

 furnished me with the following interesting notes on its occurrence 

 in the Beverley district. ' The Nightingale, as you know, is an 

 irregular summer visitor to this part of the county, in some 

 years spread over a considerable area and at other times entirely 

 absent. I scarcely know how to account for this uncertainty in 

 occupying its previous haunts, unless it be that as we are on the 

 extreme limit of its northern range we are dependent on the 

 weather in the spring whether we have them or not. Should 

 the spring be mild and genial at the time of their migration they 

 probably push further north, whilst should the weather at that time 

 be cold and cheerless they are kept more within their ordinary 

 limits. We know the mildness or severityof the seasons have much 

 do with the movements of birds. The Nightingale has visited 

 this district as far back as anyone can remember, but always has 



