REDBEEAST.— NIGHTINGALE. 53 



a gentleman^s carriage, where it hatched its young, but the 

 carriage being one day wanted, food was put in, and the old 

 bird was enclosed, but on returning home the young were 

 found dead. 



NIGHTINGALE. 



Baulias luscinia. 



After all that has been written of this delightful songster 

 there is no necessity for me to describe its habits, its habitat, 

 or its history. But, sad to say, there is in my immediate 

 neighbourhood a district wherein tradition saith that the 

 Nightingale shall not be heard. A holy recluse, who had 

 fixed his cell in St. Leonard's forest, is said to have been 

 so disturbed in his devotions by its continual singing that 

 he banished it from its precincts. Indeed some say that the 

 recluse was no other than St. Leonard himself, but it is 

 hard to put the saddle on the right horse at this distance of 

 time, for the legend is at least as old as the days of 

 Henry VIII., since, in the ' Boke of Knowledge,' by Andrew 

 Borde, physician to that king, occurs the following passage : — 

 "In the forest of Saint Leonarde's in Southsexe, there dothe 

 never singe Nightingale, although the f oreste rounde aboute 

 in tyme of the yeare is replenyshed {sic) with Nightyngales ; 

 they wyl syng round aboute the forest and never within the 

 precincts of the forest, as divers keepers of the foreste and 

 other credible parsons dwellyng there dyd shewe me." * But 

 whatever "credible parsons" say or said, I myself have 

 frequently heard the aforesaid songster pouring forth his 

 melody, regardless of consequences, in many parts of the 

 forest. 



* See ' Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. vi. p. 212. 



