14 CLASS AVES. 



echo, are the haunts which it usually prefers. The male has 

 always two or three favourite trees, on which it delights to 

 sing, and seldom will it give any where else to its voice all the 

 compass of which it is capable. The one it most particularly 

 prefers is that which is nearest to the nest, on which it ever 

 keeps a watchful eye. Once mated, it will never suffer any 

 of its own species to approach the district which it has chosen, 

 the extent of which depends on the greater or less abundance 

 of nutriment which it affords for the subsistence of the family. 

 We find that where food is abundant, the distance between 

 the nests is considerably less. Jealousy, however, has some- 

 thing to do with the extent of their mutual distance, for the 

 males fight outrageously for the choice of a companion. These 

 combats are frequently reiterated at the period of the arrival 

 of the nightingales. It is a common opinion that the females 

 are much less numerous in this species, but this may partly 

 arise, as Dr. Latham well observes, from the males migrating 

 sooner than the females, in consequence of which more of them 

 are caught at such periods. 



They commence the construction of their nests about the 

 beginning of May. Coarse weeds and dried oak leaves are 

 employed in great quantities without. Horse-hair, little roots, 

 and cow's hair furnish the inside. The whole is bound toge- 

 ttier, but in so fragile a manner that as soon as the nest is 

 displaced the whole edifice crumbles to pieces. It is usually 

 constructed near the ground, in brush-wood, at the foot of a 

 hedge, &c. or on the lowest branches of some tufted shrub. 

 The eggs are four or five in number, and of a greenish brown. 

 It is said that the male does not partake the incubation, which 

 would be an exception to the established order among insecti- 

 vorous birds, all of which relieve their females in this care 

 towards the middle of the day. Sach a supposed exceptioni 

 however, demands, before it can be admitted, the best authen- 

 ticated observations, confirmatory of its existence. 



It is also reported that the female quits the nest but once 



