i8 THE NIGHTINGALE 



be admitted until it is proved that the portions of the island to 

 which the Nightingale does resort abound in some kind of insect 

 food which is not to be found in the extreme southern counties, 

 and that the Nightingale, instead of being, as it is supposed, a 

 general insect-eater, confines itself to that one ; and this is a view 

 of the question which no one has ventured to take. My own 

 theory — and I only throw it out for consideration — is that the Night- 

 ingale is not found in these two counties on account of their 

 peculiar geographical position. The continental Nightingales are 

 observed to take their departure in autumn, either eastward through 

 Hungary, Dalmatia, Greece, and the islands of the Archipelago ; 

 or southwards across the Straits of Gibraltar, but none by the broad 

 part of the Mediterranean. Hence we may infer that the bird 

 dislikes a long sea voyage, and that when in spring it migrates 

 northward and westward, it crosses the English Channel at the 

 narrowest parts only,'^ spreads itself over the nearest counties in 

 the direction of its migration, but is instinctively prevented from 

 turning so far back again to the south as the south-west peninsula 

 of England. From Scotland it would be naturally excluded by 

 its northern position, and from Ireland by the Welsh mountains 

 and the broad sea. 



For the dwellers in these unfavoured districts alone is my de- 

 scription of the Nightingale intended ; for, where it abounds, its 

 habits are too well known to need any description. Twenty-four 

 hours of genial May weather spent in the country with a good use 

 of the eyes and ears, wiU reveal more of the life and habits of the 

 bird than is contained in all the ornithological treatises that have 

 been written on the subject, and they are not a few. 



No great amount of caution is necessary in approaching the 

 Nightingale while singing at night. One may walk unrestrainedly 

 across the fields, talking in an ordinary tone of voice, and not even 

 find it necessary to suppress conversation when close to a singing 

 bird. Either he is too intent on his occupation to detect the presence 

 of strangers, or he is aware of the security in which he is wrapped 

 by the shades of night, or he is actually proud of having listeners. 

 In the neighbourhood of my present residence in Hertfordshire, 

 Nightingales are numerous. They arrive about the seventeenth of 

 April, and for the first few days assemble year after year in the 

 bushes and hedges of a certain hillside, the position of which it would 

 be unsafe to indicate particularly, and taking their station two or three 

 hundred yards apart from each other, set up a rivalry of song which 

 is surpassingly beautiful. At this season, one may hear five or six 

 chanting at once ; every break in the song of the nearest being filled 

 up by the pipings or waOings of the more distant ones. The male 

 birds arrive several days before the female, and employ the interval, 



* This is the opinion of Gilbert White. 



