214 THE WORLD OF ANIMAL LIFE 



The nightingale is very proud of his powers of song, and 

 becomes very jealous if he thinks that he has a rival. The writer 

 often amuses himself on a spring evening by whistling to the 

 bird as soon as his song is ended, and pretending to be another 

 nightingale. First he whistles a few notes. The bird answers, 

 and then waits to see if the whistling is repeated. If it is, he 

 becomes quite excited, sings louder and louder, and comes nearer 

 and nearer, until at last he is only a few yards away. When he 

 finds that he has been taken in, and that it is not another 

 nightingale that has been whistling, he gets very angry and begins 

 to scold and chatter. 



The nightingale's song does not continue all through the year. 

 The bird only sings for about six weeks, for he does not begin 

 until he reaches this country, about the middle of April; and as 

 soon as the eggs are hatched at the end of May he loses his voice, 

 and does not recover it again until the following spring. 



Nightingales feed upon worms, almost all kinds of insects, and 

 sometimes upon fruit. In the summer, for instance, they have 

 been seen pecking away busily at "black-heart" cherries; possibly 

 because the weather was hot and dry, and they could find no 

 water to drink. But if there is one dainty which they prefer to 

 another, it is the grub of that curious flat beetle which bakers 

 call the " meal-worm ". 



This they seem quite unable to resist; and bird-catchers, when 

 they want to catch a nightingale, always bait their trap with a 

 meal-worm. If the bird has once been caught, however, and 

 allowed to escape, not even a meal-worm will tempt him again; 

 and, knowing this, residents in neighbourhoods where nightingales 

 build have sometimes employed a man to capture as many of the 

 birds as possible, and then set them free again, knowing that the 

 professional bird-catchers might then come and set their traps 

 in vain. 



The nightingale is a very affectionate bird, and becomes so 

 much attached to his mate that if he is separated from her he 

 is almost sure to pine to death. 



