28 WHITLOCK: THE NIGHTINGALE IN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 
When singing, the Nightingale may be easily approached, though 
at other times he is rather a shy bird. Unless the site of the nest is 
known, it is rather more difficult to get a view of the female, but this 
is of not much importance, as the two sexes are hardly to be distin- 
guished in the field. When uttering his song the male chooses a 
well-sheltered spot, but if one is careful to approach him only when 
he is actually singing, keeping under cover as much as possible, one 
may get within a very few feet of him. The peculiar liquid and 
metallic notes are then heard to great advantage. Not being of a 
poetic temperament, I fear I cannot do justice to the Nightingale’s 
song. I will simply say that, as a whole, it is quite unlike that of 
any other bird with which I am acquainted. Though the Sedge 
Warbler, Blackbird, Thrush, Skylark, and Reed Warbler ‘sing freely 
during the short summer nights, when it is never really dark, it is 
impossible to mistake the song of the Nightingale for that of any of 
the other species. The only time I heard the Marsh Warbier, 
however, I thought at first I was listening to a Nightingale, but after 
listening a little longer I came to the conclusion that my Nightingale 
had got a very bad cold, until at length I was fully convinced that he 
was nothing more or less than a Marsh Warbler (Acrocephalus 
palustris), a bird whose presence I had more than once sus- 
pected in Notts 
Breeding operations are in full swing early in May. The 
nest of the Nightingale is always placed very low down, either 
on the ground itself or else in a crevice of some old stump or 
weed-grown ditch side. Outwardly it is a rather untidy structure of 
dried leaves, moss, and grasses. The cup of the nest, however, is 
neatly finished off and lined with fine grasses and a few dry oak 
leaves. The eggs, four or five in number, are, as a rule, rather 
smaller than those of the Redbreast, and of a deep greenish brown 
in ground colour sometimes flecked with still browner speckles at 
the broader end. Occasionally Nightingale’s eggs resemble those of 
the Whinchat, that is, the spotted varieties of the latter, but such 
cases are rare. The young, when newly hatched, are covered with 
very fine black down. ‘They are assiduously fed by the parents with 
green caterpillars and winged insects. When the nest contains 
young the parent birds lose their timidity, and the intruder is assailed 
with cries of ‘ Tink, Tink,’ uttered without intermission, the cry of 
‘Pink, Pink’ uttered by the Chaffinch being very similar. The 
young hatched, the male ceases his song, and after they have flown 
it is only flitting glimpses that one catches of the Nightingale. 
Apparently they leave us about the first week in September, or a 
little later. 
Naturalist, 
