NIGHTINGALE. 305 
was accordingly done ; the eggs carefully packed in wool, 
and transmitted to Sir John by the mail. Sir John em- 
ployed several men to find, and take care of, the nests of 
several Robins, in places where the eggs might be deposited 
and hatched with security. The Robins’ eggs were re- 
moved, and replaced by those of the Nightingale, which 
were all sat upon, hatched in due time, and the young 
brought up by the foster-parents. The songsters flew 
when fully fledged, and were observed for some time after- 
wards near the places where they were incubated. In 
September, the usual migratory period, they disappeared, 
but never returned to the place of their birth.” 
M. Nilsson says that the Nightingale arrives in Sweden 
by the Ist of May; and Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, 
says this bird visits the temperate parts of Russia and some 
parts of Siberia. It breeds in Germany, France, Spain, 
Provence, and Italy ; but leaves even the most southern 
parts of this last-named country by the end of September, 
or early in October, gomg by Sicily and Malta to pass the 
winter in North Africa, Egypt, and Syria. Mr. Strickland 
saw this bird at Smyrna on the 5th of April. It also 
visits the islands of the Grecian Archipelago. Mr. Blyth 
has found it in India. 
The beak is brown ; the irides hazel: the head, and all 
the upper parts of the body and wings, of a uniform rich 
brown, tinged with reddish chestnut; the tail-feathers still 
more rufous, and rather rounded in form: all the under 
surface of the bird dull greyish white; the chin, and the 
lower part of the breast, of a lighter tint than the throat 
and chest; under tail-coverts pale reddish white; legs, 
toes, and claws, brown. 
The whole length of the bird, six inches and three- 
eighths. From the carpus to the end of the longest pri- 
WOE aOr. x 
