Of the five-and-twenty observations made upon the Blackcap, the majority relate to its appearance in the second week of April, and it would seem that in the case of this species, the further north we go, the later the date of its arrival. At Torquay it was observed on the 7th, Marlborough on the 10th, East and West Woodhay, Berks, on the 15th, Barnsley on the 16th, Burton on the 23rd, and Melbourne, Derbyshire, on the 27th. No record was furnished of its occurrence either in Scotland or in Ireland, where it is at all times a rare bird. It was last seen at Nottingham on Nov. 4. The Blackcap, however, does not invariably quit this country in autumn; many instances of individuals having been seen here in mid-winter have been reported by competent observers. It has occasionally happened, however, that the Coal Titmouse (Parus ater), which is a resident species, has been mistaken for this bird.
In the West of England, during the year referred to, the Redstart seems to have made its appearance somewhat earlier than usual, having been noted at Bishop’s Lydeard, near Taunton, on the 3rd of April. On the 6th it was seen at Keswick, in Norfolk, and on the 8th and three following days in four different localities in Yorkshire; the wind S.W., and the temperature about 51°. After the middle of the month this bird became more numerous, and was very generally observed. In Derbyshire, at Melbourne, it was not seen until April 24, where it seems to have arrived with a S.E. wind; and going still further north, we find it in Stirlingshire and Sutherlandshire on the 27th and 28th. In Ireland it is very rare, and no note was forwarded of its occurrence there in 1872.
The Spotted Flycatcher is always a late comer, seldom appearing before the first or second week in May. Last year, however, it arrived somewhat earlier than usual, and was noticed in Norfolk, at North Runcton, on April 23, and at Barnsley on the 27th; the wind W., and the temperature about 54° with a haze and light rain. Mr. A. D. Campbell states that Flycatchers were unusually numerous at Garvoch, in Perthshire, about the 21st of May, and were first seen there on the 19th. By Aug. 27 they had all disappeared. Only one note was received of its appearance in Ireland—viz., on May 31, at Ballina, co. Mayo. Mr. Thomas Ruddy, of Palé Gardens, Llandderfel, Merionethshire, referring to this species, says that he saw the old birds in July catching bees, not only in the air, but on the hive-board.
The Landrail, or Corncrake, as it is indifferently called,[125] arrived pretty generally during the last week of April, and was noticed by a great many observers on the 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th of that month. On the last-mentioned date it was observed in the county of Dublin, and on May 1st at Ballina, co. Mayo. Apparently it did not reach Scotland until a week later, for the first record of its appearance there is on May 8, at Fife. On May 14 and 15 its presence in Stirlingshire and Sutherlandshire was attested by two good observers. The scarcity of this bird in some seasons is a theme with which readers of “The Field” of late years have become tolerably familiar; but no light is thrown upon the subject, nor is any cause suggested by those from whom calendars were received.
That far-famed songster, the Nightingale, whose notes are so eagerly listened for in early spring, was not heard last year before April 9; but, from causes already referred to, the first utterance of song does not always indicate the earliest arrival, and it is probable that the birds had already been some days in their favourite haunts before their welcome notes betrayed them.
No more favourable locality for this species could be found, perhaps, than that wherein they were soonest observed—namely, the neighbourhood of Ratham, in Sussex. Situated on the flat country between the downs and the sea, about three miles from the former and seven from the latter, with an arm of harbour within two miles, it offers, with its attractions of wood and water, a tempting resting-place to these small winged invaders on their arrival, and furnishes, moreover, a fine post of observation to the inquiring naturalist. Here, throughout April and May, the woods of West Ashling and the copses around Kingley Vale resound with the songs of various warblers, but especially of Nightingales, which find in this safe retreat an immunity from traps which is not everywhere accorded them. On April 10 their remarkable note was detected at Reigate; on the 12th they were singing at East and West Woodhay, in Berkshire; while from the last-named date until April 18 they were daily noticed in various parts of Norfolk and Suffolk. From thence, through Leicester, Derby, and Nottingham, we trace this bird to Yorkshire, where on May 5 we find it at Barnsley, the temperature, according to that good observer Mr. Lister, standing at 50°, and the wind W. Further north than this in 1872 there were no tidings of it, although in former years I have both seen and heard it in the woods by the waterside at Walton Hall, near Wakefield, and have been informed of its occurrence five miles to the northward of York.
I had proposed in these “General Observations” to confine attention strictly to the facts disclosed by “The Field Calendar;” but the subject of the distribution of the Nightingale in England is of such interest to ornithologists, and even to those who, without professing to be naturalists, take a pleasure in listening to the bird, and are not unwilling to learn something about it, that I venture to give an extract from another source which I feel assured will be considered most instructive.
Writing upon this subject in his new edition of Yarrell’s “British Birds,” now in course of publication, Prof. Newton says (vol. i. p. 315): “In England the Nightingale’s western limit seems to be formed by the valley of the Exe, though once, and once only, Montagu, on this point an unerring witness, heard it singing on the 4th of May, 1806, near Kingsbridge in South Devon, and it is said to have been heard at Teignmouth, as well as in the north of the same county at Barnstaple. But even in the east of Devon it is local and rare, as it also is in the north of Somerset, though plentiful in other parts of the latter county. Crossing the Bristol Channel, it is said to be not uncommon at times near Cowbridge in Glamorganshire. Dr. Bree states (‘Zoologist,’ p. 1211) that it is found plentifully on the banks of the Wye near Tintern; and thence there is more or less good evidence of its occurrence in Herefordshire, Salop, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, and in Yorkshire to about five miles north of its chief city, but, as Mr. T. Allis states, not further. Along the line thus sketched out, and immediately to the east and south of it, the appearance of the Nightingale, even if regular, is in most cases rare, and the bird local; but further away from the boundary it occurs yearly with great regularity in every county, and in some places is very numerous. Mr. More states that it is thought to have once bred in Sunderland, and it is said to have been once heard in Westmoreland, and also, in the summer of 1808, near Carlisle; but these assertions must be looked upon with great suspicion, particularly the last, which rests on anonymous authority only. Still more open to doubt are the statements of the Nightingales occurrence in Scotland, such as Mr. Duncan’s (not on his own evidence, be it remarked), published by Macgillivray (“British Birds,’ ii. p. 334), respecting a pair believed to have visited Calder Wood in Mid Lothian in 1826; or Mr. Turnbull’s (‘Birds of East Lothian,’ p. 39) of its being heard near Dalmeny Park in the same county in June, 1839. In Ireland there is no trace of this species.”
It has long been well known that the male birds arrive in this country many days before the females; but, of twenty-three observations made upon the Nightingale, not one refers to or confirms this fact.
The Nightingale has been pictured by poets and naturalists in various romantic situations, but perhaps never before in so unromantic a spot as “under a bathing-machine”! Yet Mr. Monk states that on the 13th of April, 1872, there were “Nightingales on the beach under the bathing-machines along the whole length of the shore at Brighton.” The explanation which suggests itself is that the birds had just arrived, and had sought the first shelter which offered—a woody shelter, it is true, and a shady one, although of a very different kind to that which the birds had been accustomed to.