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A HISTOJtY OF THE NIGHTINGALE, 
the tail more rufous; under parts, and obscure eye-streak, pale greyish-brown, 
The sexes are scarcely distinguishable; but the young have a terminal pale spot 
on each feather of the upper plumage, and the under parts are slightly edged 
with dusky. They moult once in the year, and the young acquire their adult 
dress previous to their departure in autumn, but retain their nestling primaries 
until the second renewal of their others. 
In its systematic relations, the Nightingale may be considered as an ultimate 
ramification of the great Thrush genus, in a particular direction, an unbroken 
series of intermediate species ranging from the more characteristic Thrushes unto 
this noted songster. It is but distantly related to the Fauvets, and the other 
small insect-eating birds with which it is generally placed; and, excepting the 
small solitary Thrushes of North America, which display the gradation adverted 
to, I am aware of no genus approaching it so nearly as that of the Robin. The 
Nightingale and Robin have indeed been known to produce hybrids in a state of 
confinement. 
It may be worth while here to remark, that the Robin also ranges in a series 
of birds that grade in another direction from the radiating genus of Thrushes. 
The division Geocincla of Mr. Gould includes the species that intervene. A 
contiguous section— Petrocincla —passes into the Redstarts and Wheatears, and 
the other equivalent divisions are comprehended under the term Saxicolince; all 
the members of which are little else than small-sized Rock-thrushes, and agree in 
possessing a mottled nestling plumage, as well as in many details of habit. They 
are chiefly birds of open unsheltered localities, which habitually perch, conspi¬ 
cuously, on the summits of objects; but the Nightingales, like those Thrushes 
from which they directly grade, are inhabitants of woodland districts, and rather 
shy of observation. Two species are recognized, the larger of which (a native 
of eastern Europe) is every way more Thrush-like than that of Britain, and has 
even an obscurely spotted breast. In one of the Nightingale-like Thrushes of 
North America, the breast-spots appear as if half obliterated ; and in another of 
them the tail is rufous, as in the Nightingales. 
Our renowned chorister arrives in the south of England about the middle of 
April, and departs for warmer climates in September, though a straggler is now 
and then seen in the following month. The poet Cowper addresses some stanzas 
“ To the Nightingale, which the author heard singing on New Year’s day, 1792 ”; 
and Mr. Newman, in the Magazine of. Natural History , records that “ On 
Dec. 12, either in 1823 or 1824,” he “ heard the Nightingale singing clearly and 
distinctly, although not very loudly, at. Godaiming, Surrey”; and he adds, that 
in the neighbourhood, he has “ frequently seen the Nightingale in October, and 
once in November.” In a state of captivity, this species commonly begins to sing 
about Christmas, sometimes so early as in November, and comes into full song 
