GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 317 



to have been once heard in Westmoreland, 

 and also, in the summer of 1808, near Carlisle ; 

 but these assertions must be looked upon with 

 great suspicion, particularly the last, which rests 

 on anonymous authority only. Still more open 

 to doubt are the statements of the Nightingale's 

 occurrence in Scotland, such as Mr. Duncan's 

 (not on his own evidence, be it remarked), 

 published by Macgillivray (' British Birds,' ii. 

 p. 334), respecting a pair believed to have 

 visited Calder Wood in Mid Lothian in 1826; 

 or Mr. Turnbull's (' Birds of East Lothian,' p. 

 39) of its being heard near Dalmeny Park in 

 the same county in June, 1839. In Ireland there 

 is no trace of this species." 



It has long been well known that the male 

 birds arrive in this country many days before the 

 females ; but, of twenty-three observations made 

 upon the Nightingale, not one refers to or con- 

 firms this fact. 



The Nightingale has been pictured by poets 

 and naturalists in various romantic situations, 

 but perhaps never before in so unromantic a 



