98 TREATISE ON 



the nest may be discovered in the same manner as 

 that of the robin's, for, at no great distance from 

 the nest, the cock, perched on the branch of some 

 favourite tree, may be heard, chaunting to hi^ 

 mate his vesper notes in sweetly-soothing melody, 

 thus cheering her during the toil of incubation. 

 The nightingale is not unlike the hen redbreast, but 

 not such a bunchy bird, being more slender, neat- 

 er, a little longer, and the colour of the plumage 

 rather lighter. They are not so widely diffused 

 in Britain as the redbreast and blackcap, — the 

 bu'ds that resemble them most in the mellowness, 

 richness, and tenderness of song : But they affect 

 the same places, such as retired situations amongst 

 copses, thickset hedges, entangled brushwood, in 

 solitary dells, near chalk-hills, where a pebbly 

 stream steals through bushes and underwood. 

 Their haunts, at their first coming in spring, are 

 the roots of hedges, briers, brambles, &c. — There 

 they are screened from the cold, and there also 

 they find their favourite food. This is the best 

 time for taking old birds, viz. before they pair ; — 

 when taken after that period they are apt to die. 

 It is said the males in number greatly exceed the 

 females; but this opinion Colonel Montagu dissents 

 from, giving, as a reason, that, as the males arrive 



