( 22 ) 



NOTES ON AN AUGUST NIGHTINGALE. 

 By 0. V. Aplin. 



About the middle of August we had a Nightingale for several 

 days in the shrubbery of mixed trees and shrubs I planted a few 

 years ago in front of the house, which is now much haunted by 

 birds. But I never had a Nightingale here before, and its 

 appearance is the more remarkable since this bird is usually 

 rare round here (Bloxham, Oxon.). I had not noticed one in the 

 parish during the spring, although there were two (or three) just 

 on the outskirts — at the Highlands, Tadmarton — on a different 

 sub-soil, or rock rather. Why the Nightingale should be so 

 scarce here, as a rule, it is difficult to say. Possibly the light, 

 red land, overlaying ironstone, does not suit the plants on which 

 some favourite grub of the Nightingale feeds. It was remarked 

 long ago by John Walcott that " it has been observed to be met 

 with only where the Coivslip grows kindly " (' Synopsis of British 

 Birds,' vol. ii). And it is a fact that there are very few Cowslips 

 about here. They do not thrive in the red land. Directly you 

 get down Edgehill, on to miserable, poor, stiff, or heavy land, you 

 find Cowslips and Nightingales. The stiff land about Deddington, 

 too, seems to harbour more Nightingales than we have. These 

 remarks about light and stiff lands and Nightingales have, of 

 course, only a purely local bearing. 



Our August visitor made its presence known at first by the 

 frog-like, grating cry. It often uttered this, and also occasionally 

 the alarm note, ivit, in a rather shrill tone. It was very shy, 

 and as the growth is thick I only caught a short sight of the bird 

 very occasionally. But it used to come beyond the new shrubbery 

 into some shrubs only three or four yards from the house; and one 

 morning while we were at breakfast we could hear it croaking 

 close to us, and saw it once. The most interesting point about 

 this visit is that the bird actually sang. This was very noticeable 

 in the forenoon of the 15th, a warm and rather damp morning 



