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In answer to enquiries from a man who has advertised one, he writes,

" The Nightingale Thrush is a smaller bird than the ordinary Song Thrush,

and considered a superior songster." I want to know if this bird is a

distinct species or variet}', or whether it is onl}' a small specimen of the

Song Thrush, and whether it has a different song from the latter.


C. Harrison.



The following reply was sent to Mr. Harrison : —


" Nightingale Thrush," or rather "Thrush Nightingale," is an

out-of-date name for a bird which is usually called in this country " The

Greater Nightingale ; " but " Eastern Nightingale " is a better name, our

own bird being the Western Nightingale ; it is now often known by the

handy German name of Sprosser. If you will refer to the lower part of

page ;^T, of the current volume, }-ou will see that this species has already

been referred to in our Magazine ; — and you will also please observe that it

is not every Nightingale which has been " made in Germany " that is a

Sprosser. Indeed, I am getting more and more suspicious of the genuine-

ness of these imported specimens. Moreover, it seems to me that those

that do come over are mostly females ; with this as with other species,

the Germans seem to have a way of keeping the best for themselves and of

sending the rubbish to this country — to be disposed of at absurd prices.


I have often found it exceedingly difficult to distinguish the Sprosser

from our; Nightingale. It is true that the breast is sometimes mottled

but then so is that of the Nightingale : I think it is in the spring that the

mottling comes out so strongly. In the Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. no mention

whatever is made of mottles or spots on the breast of the Sprosser : the

account is, ''This species differs from the preceding (the Nightino-ale) in

being generally less russet in colour (more olive), especially on the upper

tail-coverts, in having a smaller bastard primarj% a more pointed wino", and

in being a somewhat larger bird." Mr. Howard Saunders specially refers

to the " minute bastard primary " as a distinguishing mark. A German

writer (Brehni) states that the Sprosser is stouter and about three-fourths

of an inch longer than the Nightingale, and that the upper breast is cloudy

speckled. The song is stated to be more powerful but less melodious than

that of our bird. It is stated by some, even quite recently, that the Sprosser

has been occasionally met with in this country ; but this is discredited by

modern scientists, who have laid down the law that the bird must not

appear farther west than the Rhine valley — but birds do not always regard

the laws of the learned. The Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. says, "The Eastern

Nightingale breeds in Eastern Europe, rarely strajdng into the valley

of the Rhine, extending northwards into South Sweden and Central

Russia, and eastwards into Asia Minor, Northern Turkestan, and South-

western Siberia. It passes through North-eastern Africa on migration, and

doubtless winters somewhere in the interior."


It will be seen from the foregoing that the Thrush Nightingale must

not be compared with the British Thrush but with our familiar Nightino-ale.

Even the old scientific name Philomela tiitdoides (Thrush-like Nightino-ale)

has long been discarded along with the English one.


Reginau) Phihipps.



