MIGRATION OF NIGHTINGALES. 
239 
in wool, and forwarded "by the mail. In the meantime 
men had been employed to find and take care of several 
Robin Redbreasts’ nests, in places where they might hatch 
securely. The eggs were then placed under the Robins, by 
whom the young Nightingales were successfully reared, and 
remained in the neighbourhood till the usual time for mi- 
gration ; when it is supposed they went away, as they were 
not seen again after that period, and not one was known 
to return to the place of its birth. It has been suggested by 
others, that being a delicate bird, and little calculated to 
endure the fatigue of long flights, they migrated from the 
Continent only to the eastern coast of England, and then 
gradually journeyed inland ; and consequently that this would 
account for their not being seen in Cornwall, and some of the 
other western parts of England. But in reply to this, it 
should be remembered, that the eastern flight across the 
Channel, unless they all embarked at Calais for the coasts of 
Essex and Kent, is as wide as that between the western 
coasts of France, where they are plentiful, and the corres- 
ponding coasts of England, which they do not visit.* 
The Nightingale stands unrivalled at the head of our sing- 
ing birds, and may be called, as old Izaak Walton, the angler, 
terms them, “ chiefest of the little nimble musicians of the air, 
that warble forth their curious ditties with which nature has 
furnished them to the shame of art but proud as they may 
be of their own skill, they are not insensible to the harmony 
of musical instruments. The German hymn played upon a 
flute very softly near a bush, in which there was a nest, soon 
attracted the attention of the birds. Scarcely was the air 
finished, than the cock was heard to chirp ; and when played 
a second time it was seen to hop through the bushes with great 
quickness towards the place where the player stood, at the 
same time making a sort of sub-warbling, which it soon 
changed into its usual beautiful and lengthened song. 
The Nightingale is usually supposed to withhold his notes 
till the sun has set, and then to be the only songster left. 
* See p. 87. 
