364 



bill dark brown, tbe under mandible paler ; legs lighter brown ; iris hazel. Total length about 6'25 

 inches, culmen 0-65, wing 3-3, tail 265, tarsus 1-05 ; first primary short, but extending 0'2 beyond the 

 coverts, being 165 shorter than the second; the third, which is the longest, is 022 longer than the 

 second. 



Adult Female. Undistinguishable in plumage from the male. 



Young. Darker in general coloration than the adult bird, the feathers on the upper parts marked with a 

 warm ochrcous shaft-spot ; underparts washed with brownish yellow, the feathers having greyish brown 

 edges, which form irregular bars. 



The range of this, our common British Nightingale, is more southern and western than that of 

 the Sprosser, or Northern Nightingale. It is found throughout Western and Central Europe, as 

 far north as Great Britain, and is also common in Southern Europe, passing south into Africa 

 for the winter. 



In the British Isles it appears to be restricted to England ; for the statement in Macgillivray's 

 • British Birds ' (ii. p. 334) that a pair was believed to have visited Calder Wood, in Midlothian, 

 in 1826, and that by Mr. Turnbull to the effect that it was heard near Dalmeny Park in the same 

 county, in June 1869, are open to grave doubt. Professor Newton says (Yarr. Brit. B. ed. 4, i. 

 p. 316) that the western limit of the present species " appears to be formed by the valley of the 

 Exe, though once, and once only, Montagu, on this point an unerring witness, heard it singing 

 (on the 4th of May, 1806) near Kingsbridge, in South Devon, and it is said to have been heard 

 at Teignmouth, as well as in the north of the same county at Barnstaple. But even in the east 

 of Devon it is local and rare, and it also is so in the north of Somerset, though plentiful in other 

 parts of the latter. Crossing the Bristol Channel, it is said to be not uncommon at times near 

 Cowbridge, in Glamorganshire, the information to this effect (confirmed by an example of the bird 

 shot in May 1855 near the Perthkerry Woods in that locality) having been kindly communicated 

 by Mr. Robert Boreter, of Llandaugh Castle, and announced in the last edition of the present 

 work. Dr. Bree states (Zool. p. 1211) that it is found plentifully on the banks of the Wye, near 

 Tintern ; and thence there is more or less good evidence of its occurrence in Hertfordshire, Salop, 

 Staffordshire, Derbyshire, and in Yorkshire to about five miles north of its chief city, but, as 

 Mr. Thomas Allis states, not further. Along the line thus sketched out, and immediately to the 

 east and south of it, the appearance of the Nightingale, even if regular, is in most cases rare, and 

 the bird local ; but further away from the boundary it occurs yearly with great regularity in 

 every county, and in some places is very numerous. Mr. More states that it is ' thought to have 

 once bred near Sunderland,' and it is said 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." In Ireland it is not 

 known to have occurred ; nor has it been met with in Norway, Sweden, or Finland ; but Mr. 

 Sabanaeff informs me that he believes it is found in the Moscow Government. According to 

 Eversmann it breeds on the Southern Volga and in the Southern Ural, as also in the Voronege, 

 Orloff, and Charkoff Governments ; and Kessler says that it is rather scarce in the Kieff districts. 

 It is, however, possible that some of these records may refer to the closely allied Daulias 



