198 



BLYTH ON 



THE 



NIGHTINGALE. 



The difference, however, between the nightingale and the other 

 birds with which it has been classed, is much more obvious in 

 confinement ; the quiet sedentary habits of the former contrasting 

 strongly with the activity of the smaller warblers confounded with 

 it at present in the same genus. The nightingale in confinement 

 requires more nourishing food than what is necessary for the susten- 

 ance of the other various warblers. Many, I am aware, keep both on 

 the same diet; but the warblers will thrive on a variety of food, 

 which will not support the nightingale. The general habits and man- 

 ners also of the latter, in captivity, much resemble those of the robin 

 and redstart genus, (Phcenicura ;) and bear a still closer similitude, 

 if possible, to the manners of the thrush group (Merulina ;) but they 

 differ greatly from those of the various warblers. 



In tracing the resemblances which assimilate different species to one 

 another, much assistance is often afforded by a close attention to their 

 nidification : thus, if we examine the nests of the fauvette, the blackcap, 

 the babillard, the whitethroat, and the furze warbler, (all sylvan or 

 fruit-eating warblers,) we find the same generic similarity existing, which 

 we perceive in the birds themselves : and if we were to trace also the 

 various intermediate links, which almost imperceptibly connect the 

 most dissimilar forms together, we should generally find a regular gra- 

 dation in their nests, corresponding to the gradual modification of struc- 

 ture in the birds. Thus, the wood-wren, ( — sibilatrix,) the species that 

 assimilates the sylvan warblers to the genus to which it belongs, and 

 which is even classed in Curruca by Dr. Fleming, may be observed to 

 maintain a similar resemblance in its nest : it being of the same oval form 

 with those of its congeners, but never lined with feathers, as is invariably 

 the case with the nests of the willow- wren and chiffchaffs, the 

 two other common British species of its genus. The gold-crests 

 (Regulus) again, which closely assimilate to the willow- wrens in ap- 

 pearance and structure, resemble in their general habits, and even 

 in their common call-notes, the tits ; and the nest of the common 

 gold-crest (R. cristatus) is deep, and lined with feathers as in the 

 willow-wren genus j but instead of being placed on the ground, as 

 are the nests of those birds, it is frequently suspended from a branch, 

 like that of the penduline tit, (Parus pendulinits ;) which latter bird 

 also resembles the gold crests in the slender form of its bill, and 

 in the weakness of its general structure. The bottletit, (Parus ? cau- 

 datus, with whose beautiful nest most persons are well acquainted,) assi- 

 milates the penduline to the various species which build in holes; which 



