TURDINA. 39 
THE NIGHTINGALE. 
Datuias Luscfnia (Linnezeus). 
This noted songster comes to us in the first or second week in 
April; the males preceding the females by several days. Although 
generally distributed over the greater part of England, it becomes 
rarer in the west, until in Devonshire a line is reached beyond 
which the bird is absolutely unknown; and, although it visits 
Herefordshire occasionally, the same may be said of Wales, except 
Glamorganshire and Brecon. A straggler to Cheshire, of question- 
able occurrence in Lancashire, and unknown in Westmoreland or 
Cumberland, it has bred more than once near Scarborough, and it 
has probably visited the valley of the Derwent, in Yorkshire ; while 
in the exceptionally hot spring of 1893 Mr. G. Bolam saw and heard 
a male in the north of Northumberland. As regards Ireland, a 
specimen, said to have been shot near the Old Head of Kinsale, is 
in the museum of Queen’s College, Cork. 
On the Continent, Northern Germany appears to be the highest 
authenticated latitude for our Nightingale; south of which it is 
generally distributed throughout Central Europe. In such southern 
countries as Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey, it abounds 
in suitable localities ; while it breeds also in North Africa, Palestine 
and Asia Minor. Its north-eastern limit in Europe appears to be 
the valley of the Vistula; and in Russia it is confined to the 
