308 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



A VE S. 



The Nightingale (Daulias luscinia) in Lancashire : a New Record. 



— I am pleased to be able definitely to record the Nightingale for the 

 county of Lancashire. Mr. W. Hardy, of Oldham, has just sent for 

 my inspection a mounted specimen, together with many particulars 

 relating to its origin. " About forty years ago " the bird took up its 

 position in a small clough or wooded valley between Ashton-under- 

 Lyne and Oldham, in the south-east corner of the county. So many 

 people crowded to listen to it that the occupier of the land — a 

 Mr. Webb, of Dean Shut — had the bird trapped, afterwards giving it 

 to his neighbour, Mr. J. Hardy, the grandfather of my present corre- 

 spondent. The history of the specimen appears to be quite beyond 

 doubt. It is an adult with fresh plumage, showing no signs of 

 captivity ; nor have I been able to detect traces of either shot-holes 

 or blood-marks on the feathers. This last supports the statement 

 that the bird was trapped and not shot. Mr. Hardy cannot say 

 which was the exact locality, but it must be one of two small 

 doughs tributary to the Medlock Valley between Parkbridge and 

 Bardsley, on the Oldham side of the river. The southernmost of 

 these is still very secluded, and not at all an unlikely place for the 

 species, judging from its superficial resemblance to many Nightingale 

 haunts that I have seen in other counties ; and in 1870 the district 

 would be far more suitable than it is to-day. I am pleased to say 

 that Mr. Hardy is presenting the specimen to the Oldham Museum. 

 It is not necessary here to discuss the many unsupported records 

 relating to the Nightingale in Lancashire. Mr. Mitchell mentions 

 the most likely in the introduction to his ' Birds of Lancashire,' but 

 he does not include the species in his list. The latest account of the 

 birds of the county ('Victoria History, Lancashire,' vol. i. p. 192) 

 accepts the species, but the absence of any details of place, date, or 

 observer detracts from the record. Mr. James Arlosh, in a brief foot- 

 note to a general paper (Trans. Cumberland Assoc. Lit. and Science, 

 pt. v. (1879), p. 131), says that it visits each year Prestwich Clough, 

 near Manchester, but he gives no authority for his statement. The 

 Nightingale has occurred, and apparently nested, within ten miles of 

 the present Lancashire locality — at Eomiley, in the neighbouring 

 county of Cheshire, and within fifteen miles at Strines, on the 

 Cheshire-Derbyshire border (cf. T. A. Coward, ' Vertebrate Fauna, 

 Cheshire,' i. p. 132) ; but, so far as I know, this Oldham bird is the 

 only existing specimen from either Lancashire or Cheshire. — Fkedk. 

 J. Stubbs. 



