MIGRATION OF NIGHTINGALES. 37 
very desirous of introducing these birds on his estate, 
in a northern part of the kingdom, commissioned a 
person in London to purchase as many Nightingales’ 
eggs as he could procure at a shilling each. This 
was done accordingly; they were carefully packed 
in wool, and forwarded by the mail. In the mean 
time, 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 migra- 
tion; 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. Tt 
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 he 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 corre- 
sponding coasts of England, which they do not 
visit. 
The Nightingale stands unrivalled at the head of 
our singing birds, and may he called, as old Izaak 
Walton, the' angler, terms them, “ chiefest of the 
little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth 
