The Nightingale. 59 



plantation of birch trees grown for hop-poles, and among the briars and rank 

 vegetation at their roots I have often sought and sometimes found its nest. 



The song of the Nightingale surpasses in melody and charm that of any- 

 other bird ; it commences usually with a long-dra*vn plaintive phwee, phwee, phwee, 

 phwee, repeated from four to six times in succession, and followed by a rapid 

 water-bubble chooka, chooka, chooka, chooka, chooka, chookee, and then perhaps a 

 series of clear notes commencing tooey, too, too, too, tooti, more and more rapidly 

 uttered and increasing in power ; sometimes the song commences with this 

 tooey, yet more often with the complaining note : but, without the bird singing 

 at one's side, it is impossible to remember, much less to do justice to, this 

 brilliant musician ; once heard, it can never be mistaken for anything else ; 

 the Blackcap sometimes strives to copy the melody, and does it fairly well ; 

 but he sings too loud, without the softness of sweet Philomel. On one 

 occasion when out with Mr. Frohawk at twilight, on the skirt of a Kentish 

 wood we heard a Song- Thrush and a Blackbird trying to outdo a Nightin- 

 gale : it was all in vain, all three birds were perfect masters of their art ; 

 the Thrush, by introducing part of the song of the Nightingale, much im- 

 proved his own natural performance ; but the Blackbird scorned to copy, he 

 swung out his full flowing phrases in grand style, and when he knew him- 

 self beaten, in a royal rage he charged the tree in which the little russet 

 songster sat, and drove it from its retreat ; but the Nightingale, nothing 

 daunted, perched on the branch of another tree some fifty feet away, and then 

 the concert recommenced : never before or since have I heard any of these 

 three species sing so superbly. 



The nest of the Nightingale is usually placed in a hole in the ground, 

 less frequently in the forking base of a pollard partly overhung by rank 

 grass and fern-fronds, rarely in bramble or hawthorn, a foot or more above 

 the earth, but in such unusual positions I have only twice found it, its usual 

 site is in a depression at the foot of a tree, pollard, or bramble-bush well 

 concealed by ferns, grasses or other short undergrowth. On several occasions, 

 however, I have found it fully exposed to the sky, among the drifted oak- 

 leaves in a small clearing close to some blind keeper's path : when thus 

 situated, it appears to the casual pedestrian to be merely a round hole among 

 the dead leaves ; but, to the experienced bird'snester, it is fully revealed at 

 a glance. Curiously enough, the rustics who, in a desultory fashion, have 

 plundered and destroyed nests from their babyhood upwards, invariably over- 

 look all nests which are merely protected by their environment in this fashion, 

 and express the greatest wonder that a townsman should instantly recognize 



