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THE NIGHTINGALE. 
attract the bird to its destruction. It appears to make great havoc among the caterpillars, 
which come ont to feed at night, and are to be seen so abundantly on damp, warm evenings. 
In the autumn it is somewhat of a fruit-eater, and has been seen in the act of eating “black- 
heart” cherries, plucking them from the tree and carrying them to its young. In captivity it 
is best fed upon meal-worms, raw beef scraped with a knife and given very fresh, hard-boiled 
egg and water, all mixed into a kind of paste. The idea, however, of caging a Nightingale, 
seems so barbarous, that I shall say nothing more on that subject. 
As is well known, the song of the Nightingale is almost wholly uttered in the evening, 
but the bird may sometimes be heard in full song throughout the day. Towards the end of 
NIGHTINGALES .—Luscinia vera and Lwcinia pMomela. 
June, when the young birds are hatched, the song changes into a kind of rough, croaking 
sound, which is uttered by way of warning, and accompanied with a sharp, snapping sound 
of the beak. The time when the Nightingales sing loudest and most constantly is during the 
week or two after their arrival, for they are then engaged in attracting their mates, and sing 
in fierce rivalry of each other, hoping to fascinate their brides by the splendor of their voices. 
When once the bird has procured a partner, he becomes deeply attached to her, and if she 
should be captured, soon pines away and dies, full of sorrowful remembrances. The bird 
dealers are therefore anxious to catch the Nightingale before the first week has elapsed, as 
they can then, by dint of care and attention, preserve the bird in full song to a very late 
period. Mr. Yarrell mentions an instance where a caged Nightingale sang upon an hundred 
and fourteen successive days. 
The nest of the Nightingale is always placed upon or Very near the ground, and is gener- 
ally carefully hidden beneath heavy foliage. One such nest that 1 discovered was placed 
