Sir JoJin Sinclair' s Attevipt. 41 



There have been various attempts to introduce the nightingale 

 into such parts of this country as it has not yet frequented ; for 

 instance, a gentleman of Gower, a sea-side district of Glamor- 

 ganshire, the climate of which is remarkably mild, procured a 

 number of young birds from Norfolk and Surrey, hoping that 

 they would find themselves so much at home in the beautiful 

 woods there as to return the following year. But none came. 

 Again, as regards Scotland, Sir John Sinclair purchased a large 

 number of nightingales' eggs, at a shilling each, and employed 

 several men to place them carefully in robins' nests to be 

 hatched. So far all succeeded well. The foster-mothers reared 

 the nightingales, which, when full fledged, flew about as if 

 quite at home. But when September came, the usual month 

 for the migration of the nightingale, the mysterious impulse 

 awoke in the hearts of the young strangers, and, obeying it, 

 they suddenly disappeared and never after returned. 



Mr. Harrison Weir has given us a very accurate drawing of 

 the nightingale's nest, which is slight and somewhat fragile in 

 construction, made of withered leaves — mostly of oak — and 

 lined with dry grass. The author of " British Birds " describes 

 one in his possession as composed of slips of the inner bark of 

 willow, mixed with the leaves of the lime and the elm, lined 

 with fibrous roots, grass, and a few hairs ; but whatever the 

 materials used may be, the effect produced is exactly the same. 



In concluding our little chapter on this bird, I would mention 

 that in the Turkish cemetries, which, from the old custom of 

 planting a cypress at the head and foot of every grave, have 

 now become cypress woods, nightingales abound, it having 

 been also an old custom of love to keep these birds on every grave. 



