The Naturalist. 



showed great skill in baiting his spring traps with the common 

 meal-worm, and placing them in the most likely places to allure 

 the bird. After many fruitless attempts to catch it, we were 

 compelled at last to give it up, and return home. However, I 

 felt richly repaid for my long walk, by hearing the wonderful 

 songster. 



On the following Tuesday, Mr. Hall went again, and he 

 afterwards told me that he had no sooner put down his traps than 

 he had caught the bird. I saw it in a cage a short time after, 

 and was astonished to find it quite tame. Its food was raw beef, 

 hard boiled eggs, ants, and ants' eggs, and occasionally a meal- 

 worm. 



The next time I heard one was in May, 1861, when I was 

 in Edlington Wood, near Doncaster, entomologising with Mr. 

 B. Gibson. 



On the 21st of May, 1870, I had another opportunity of 

 hearing it, at Coxley Valley. On reaching the place, about 10 

 p.m., I found a large number of people standing, wrapped in 

 silence, on the footpath which skirts the wood, and, to our 

 intense delight, from a bush about fifteen yards off the footpath, 

 the Nightingale was pouring forth its delightful notes, which it 

 continued for half-an-hour in an uninterrupted stream of melody. 

 Upon our return, we could hear its strains until we reached 

 Coxley Dam, a distance of half-a-mile. 



The next time I had the privilege of iiearing the Nightin- 

 gale was on the 6th of May, 1871, when I accompanied Mr. 

 T. Lister, of Barnsley, to New Park Spring, Great Houghton, 

 for the purpose of hearing it. On our arrival there at 8 p.m., 

 we found it in full song, and, enthralled by its notes, we 

 remained until 11-30, when, though reluctantly, we left. For 

 nearly a mile, however, we could still hear its delicious music 

 resounding through the midnight air. I made a second visit 

 shortly after, in the day time, and was pleased to find its song 

 almost equally delightful as in the night time, though it had a 

 formidable opponent in a song thrush, which strove hard to 

 obtain the mastery, Mr. Tomlinson, the woodman, whose 

 cottage was close to the nest, afterwards told me that for several 

 days after the young birds had left the nest, he saw them 

 sporting in his garden. I was very glad to hear that they 

 had reared their brood successfully. 



{To he GontmuHl): 



