NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
:09 
The price of nightingales for turning out in copses is thirty 
shillings a dozen, cocks and hens. When " meated off," and 
properly caged, a nightingale is worth from five shillings to one 
guinea, according to the quality of the song. 
Mr. Keilich tells me that in Germany there are two kinds of 
nightingales. The larger is called a " sprossen." In size it is be- 
tween the nightingale and thrush. These sprossens are com- 
mon all down the Danube, and the Vistula districts. There is a 
great number of them about Vienna. These birds are brought to 
England from Austria by the German bird dealers ; they are 
known to the English bird-catchers as the thrush nightingale. 
The song is extraordinarily powerful, but its quality is not 
nearly so good as the British birds. The sprossen is very 
seldom caught in England, and is not found in Prance. The 
noise which White describes as " snapping or cracking " is 
called by the English bird-catchers " wheeting and kurring," the 
word sounds," Kur-r-r, kur-r-r, kur-r," repeated three times, then 
conies a sharp " wheet, wheet," like a very sharp whistle. Night- 
ingales build their nests about a foot from the ground, in lanes 
and thick hedgerows. The nests are made principally with 
dried oakleaves, and lined with fine dried grass. These nests 
when handled easily fall to pieces. The wheeting and kurring 
is not intended for menace ; this is to delude their enemies, and 
entice them away from their nest. They will run and tiy in 
Iront of a man along a low hedgerow. AVhen they have enticed 
a man away from the nest, they will dart through the hedge 
and instantly double back to their nest. They are very cunnii]g 
in building. Like other birds they are not frightened at cattle. 
They only wheet and kurr to mankind. No bird has any fear 
or dread of cattle. Nightingales are wonderful birds to run 
(or rather hop) very quickly. Tie a idghtingale's wings and 
see if you can catch him. Nightingales' wings are always tied 
by catchers, and kept tied for a week. The cocks are always 
singing close to their nests, which are often near cottages. 
This year, 1875, two pairs of nightingales built at Highgate ; 
one pair in the Baroness Burdett Coutts's grounds, and another 
pair bred in the cemetery, on tlie opposite side of the lane. 
Numbers of people went there to hear these birds sing. They 
were both well looked after, and the young and old birds all 
escaped the bird-catchers. Nightingales return every year to 
the neighbourhood where they were born, and I hope, there- 
fore, that they will again become abundant at Hampstead. 
Lord Mansfield's woods at Hampstead have been preserved 
the last three years, and it is not uncommon of a summer's 
evening to hear twenty or thirty nightingales singing, especially 
