the British Song Bird. 79 



degrees to the excessive heats of our summer sun. They should 

 be turned loose where water is accessible ; where they might be 

 able to return at pleasure to their old food, in their well-known 

 cages; and where hi their return they would be free from danger 

 from cats ; as while lingering, as they would do, round old 

 haunts, they would be very liable to destruction from this quar- 

 ter. Before being turned loose, they shoidd be accustomed to 

 the use of their wings, by being confined for some time in a 

 room, or a very roomy cage. Considerable strength of wing, 

 and a free use of it, is essential to their safety, as all new birds 

 would be exposed to great annoyance from several of the native 

 birds, and, if not equal to them in activity, their attacks might 

 be fatal. 



In proceeding to deal with the more purely British song-bird, 

 we may pause to ask ourselves which we should first experiment 

 upon. In the event of anything being done, I think it would 

 be a pity to fritter away attention upon several sorts, and that 

 it would be wiser to concentrate our attention upon one or two 

 only, till experiments upon them had been fairly tried, and we 

 had established them in the colony, or had proved that their 

 introduction was impossible. Glancing down the list of larks, 

 thrushes, blackbirds, robins, nightingales, linnets, finches, &c, I 

 am inclined to think that it woidd be judicious to begin with 

 the skylark, and that queen of songsters — the nightingale ; and 

 that whatever means may be available would be better expended 

 at first in the greatest possible number of individual specimens 

 of these two kinds, than in importing a smaller number of 

 several of a longer list. By aiming at too much we might fail 

 altogether ; while by concentrating our attention in one or two 

 directions, we may subject the experiments to a perfectly fair 

 trial. 



I have looked somewhat carefully into the history and habits 

 of the nightingale, and I am strongly inclined to believe that it 

 might be successfully introduced amongst us. It is found over 

 almost all the warmer parts of Europe, a considerable portion 

 of Asia, and part of Africa. At the same time it is somewhat 

 capricious in its choice of locality. It is not found in Scotland 

 or Ireland, nor hi some of the counties of England (Devonshire 

 and Cornwall, for instance) which one woidd think best adapted 

 to its tastes. It is migratory ; arriving in England about the 

 middle of April, and leaving about September, for some portion, 

 it is believed, of Asia. 



I have long been impressed with the possibility and desira- 

 bility of introducing this bird. A year or two ago, I wrote to 



