4 46 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The same in regard to the bam owl most emphatically. I have always 

 noted that our common birds increase at a great rate till there comes a 

 severe winter, when they are thinned in a wholesale fashion. Thus Nature 

 remedies matters in her usual cruel and relentless fashion." 



Nightjar : Caprimulgus europaeus. 



The nightjar is one of the latest to arrive of our summer migrants. 

 It sometimes frequents gardens. This bird is peculiar in several respects ; 

 it has a very large mouth, lined at the edge with bristles like the swallow, 

 the martin, and the swift, apparently to retain the large moths, cockchafers, 

 and other beetles it catches. It has a light, noiseless flight, coming out 

 at dusk, and making a burring noise like a spinning-wheel. E. 13. Lodge 

 says it sometimes claps its wings over its back like a pigeon. Its 

 middle claw has a strange serrated edge like a minute comb, apparently 

 used to clean the bristles of its mouth from the fluff off the moths. This 

 bird, unlike other birds, sits lengthways instead of crossways on a bough, 

 and is consequently more difficult to see. It often lays its two eggs on 

 the ground among the bracken, and is sometimes called the " Fern owl." 

 It is a very useful bird and does no harm. 



Goldfinch : Carduelis elegans. 



This bird, " endowed with the fatal gift of beauty," has been becoming 

 scarcer for many years, probably being driven away by the development of 

 towns, and we have to thank the Wild Birds' Protection Act for endeavouring 

 to preserve it from bird-catchers, by whom it is one of the most prized 

 of caged birds. It is seldom seen in the garden, as it prefers waste land, 

 feeding on the seeds of thistle, groundsel, dandelion, and burdock. The 

 " Guide to the British Birds " says : — " It is generally distributed through- 

 out the summer months over England and Ireland, but rarer and local in 

 Scotland. The majority are migratory, leaving Great Britain in October 

 and returning in April, but in mild winters some individuals remain in 

 England. Four to six eggs are laid, two broods are produced." 



Nightingale : A'edon luscinia. 



Perhaps a list of garden birds would be considered incomplete without 

 the nightingale. This sw T eet singer, although it keeps mainly to the 

 woods, occasionally visits the garden, and adds its own peculiar charm 

 to the delights of a summer evening's stroll. It is rather fastidious as 

 to locality, and B. B. Lodge says of it that it is reluctant to visit the 

 west of England and has hardly yet penetrated to Devon, although it 

 goes as far north as York and Lincoln. 



The nightingale is, perhaps, the most renowned of all songsters in the 

 world. It is entirely beneficial, being almost entirely insectivorous. 



Ireland is avoided by many migratory birds ; the redstart is rare 

 there, the blackcap and warbler uncommon, and the nightingale is said 

 to be unknown. W. Swaysland, in " Familiar Wild Birds," says " the 

 nightingale arrives in England about the early part of April, the males 

 preceding the females by about a week, or at times even a fortnight ; 



