Class II. NIGHTINGALE. 495 



olive; the tail is of a deep tawny red ; the throat, 

 breast, and upper part of the belly, are of a light 

 glossy ash-color ; the lower belly almost white ; 

 the exterior webs of the quil feathers are of a 

 dull reddish brown ; the interior of brownish 

 ash-color ; the irides are hazel, and the eyes re- 

 markably large and piercing; the legs and feet 

 of a deep ash-color. 



This bird, the most famed of the feathered 

 tribe, for the variety*, length, and sweetness 

 of its notes, visits England the beginning of 

 April, and leaves us in August. It is a species 

 that does not spread itself over the island. It 

 is not found in North Wales, or in any of the 

 English counties north of it, except Yorkshire, 

 where it is met with in great plenty about Don- 

 caster f. It has been also heard, but rarely, near 

 Shrewsbury. It is also remarkable, that this 

 bird does not migrate so far west as Devonshire. 

 and Cornwall; counties where the seasons are 

 so very mild, that myrtles flourish in the open 



* For this reason, Oppian, in his halieutics, 1. I. 728. 

 gives the nightingale the epithet of dioXopcovy), or various 

 voiced; and Hesiod, (figuratively) of iroixiXofeipcc, or va- 

 rious throated. Egytx, xut rjfji,£§a,i, 1.201. 



t In the year 1808, a nightingale was several times 

 heard in the gardens of the Earl of Lonsdale, in Fisher 

 Street, Carlisle. J. L. 



