ORDER PASSERJES. 13 



traveller has seen several during the winter, on the fresh and 

 smiling plains of the Delta, and has also witnessed their 

 passage in the islands of the Archipelago. In some parts 

 of Asia Minor, particularly Natolia, the nightingale is com- 

 mon, and never quits the forests or woods which it has 

 chosen for its abode. During their passage through the 

 islands of the Levant, and their sojourn in climates which are 

 foreign to them, as they are not employed in the repro- 

 duction of their species, these delightful songsters never pour 

 forth their enchanting melody. There seems no doubt but 

 that some of them retire into Barbary, as they are found in 

 greater numbers in the countries bordering on the Mediter- 

 ranean, at that time than at any other. They are to be seen 

 there, when they have totally disappeared from our more 

 northern climates, and nearly a month sooner than they re- 

 appear in the north. They advance thither only in propor- 

 tion as the cold relaxes : they set out and return with the 

 common warblers, the fig-eaters, the becaficos, and other 

 insectivorous birds. So powerful is the instinct of migration 

 in the nightingale, that those which are retained in captivity 

 are observed to be particularly agitated, especially during 

 the night, at the usual periods when the species migrate _ 

 These birds change places, not only to avoid the cold, but 

 also to seek out the countries in Avhich they can procure a 

 suitable aliment. 



The nightingale, naturally timid and solitary, migrates, 

 .arrives, and departs alone. It appears in England in the 

 middle of April, or at farthest in the beginning of May. In 

 France, a little sooner. It remains at first among the hedges 

 which border cultivated lands and gardens, where it finds a 

 more abundant nutriment. But it remains there but for a 

 short time, for as soon as the forests begin to be covered with 

 verdure, it retires into the woods and thickets where it de- 

 lights in the thick foliage. The shelter of a hill-side, the 

 neighbourhood of some purling stream, the proximity of an 



