THE NIGHTINGALES. 
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Young. — -Duller brown than the adults, and mottled on the 
upper surface with ochreous-brown markings near the tips of 
the feathers, which are edged with dusky brown ; the under 
surface of the body dingy-white, with dusky margins to the 
feathers of the throat and breast ; wings and tail as in the 
adults, but rather darker chestnut ; the wing-coverts tipped with 
ochreous buff spots. 
Range in Great Britain. — A summer visitor, arriving in the 
middle of April, but not extending to the northern counties of 
England, and up to the present unrecorded from Scotland or 
Ireland. It does not extend its range through all the western 
counties of England, and in Devonshire and the greater part of 
Wales it reaches its western limit in this country. To the north 
it is found in Yorkshire, and occasionally in Cheshire, but it is 
only of doubtful occurrence in Lancashire. 
Range outside the British Islands. — The Nightingale is a summer 
visitor to the greater part of Southern and Central Europe, and 
breeds in all the Mediterranean countries, including North 
Africa and Palestine Its range to the north-east extends to 
the valley of the Vistula, but the species is not found in North- 
eastern Germany, and in Russia it only inhabits the southern 
provinces during its stay. In winter it visits North-eastern 
Africa, and it was found by Captain Shelley on the Gold Coast. 
Habits. — -The male birds always precede the females in their 
arrival by a few days, and as soon as they reach our shores 
they are distributed over the woods and thickets of the 
southern counties, where their beautiful notes betray their 
presence. Several males may then be heard singing in the 
same wood, their liquid notes being heard in answer to one 
another throughout the whole day. As soon, however, as 
the hen-birds have come, building operations are com- 
menced, and the male sings more frequently towards night- 
fall, continuing at intervals throughout the night, if the weather 
be fine. Until recent years the song of the Nightingale could 
be heard in the western suburbs of London, and the bird 
regularly frequented the orchards near Bedford Park up to 1882, 
while many people are still living who can remember the 
Nightingale’s song at Bayswater, and a specimen from this once 
rural district of London is in the British Museum. 
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