146 GLIMPSES OF INDIAN BIRDS 



paying the necessary homage to the nightingale I 

 cannot do better than repeat " c'est un bijou." 



Ornithologists assure us that there are three species 

 of nightingale. There is the Western nightingale 

 {Dardias luscinia), which visits England in the summer 

 and fills the woods with its glorious melody. Then 

 there is the Eastern species or variety which is also 

 known as the sprosser (D. pMlomela), and, lastly, 

 the Persian nightingale, the hazar-dastan or bulbid 

 of the Persian poets. This last variety is known to 

 men of science as Daulias golzii. 



It would puzzle the ordinary man to distinguish 

 between these various races. The length of the tail 

 is one test. If the nightingale have a tail well over 

 three inches in length it is the Persian form, if well 

 under three inches it is a Western nightingale, and 

 if about three inches a sprosser. The nightingale, 

 as every one knows, is a small bird varying from 

 6J to 7J inches in length. Both sexes dress alike 

 and in the plainest manner possible, the upper plumage 

 being russet brown and the lower pale buff. 



As we have seen, one of the Persian names of the 

 nightingale is " bulbul." This has given rise to con- 

 siderable misunderstanding regarding the existence of 

 nightingales in India. Every one knows that India 

 teems with bulbuls, and as "bulbul" is the Persian 

 for nightingale, the average Englishman labours under 

 the delusion that Hindustan abounds with nightingales 

 which fill the soft Indian night with melody, at the time 



" When mangoes redden and the asoka buds 

 Sweeten the breeze and Rama's birthday comes," 



