Towards the beginning of winter they become fat, and are then considered excellent eating.
They generally form their nests in a bush near the ground, and have about four eggs of pale red colour, clouded, and mottled with red and yellow.
147. The NIGHTINGALE (Motacilla luscinia) is distinguished by the rusty brown colour, tinged with olive, of its upper parts, and by an ash-coloured ring on the naked part of the thigh above the knees.
It is a migratory bird, generally arriving in this country in the month of April, and leaving it in September, and then retiring, as it is supposed, into some parts of Asia.
This bird delights in solitude, and is naturally of a wild and timid disposition. His usual resort is the side of some hill, especially if there be an echo. Here, perched upon the branch of a tree or shrub, he most delights to sing; and interrupts his warblings by short pauses, as if listening and making responses to the echo of his own voice.
The song of the nightingale is peculiarly mellow and plaintive; and its compass, such as to reach through three octaves, and sometimes even more. In sprightliness it yields to the notes of the sky-lark, the linnet, goldfinch, and even the redbreast. A nightingale in singing its whole song was remarked to have sixteen different beginnings and closes; at the same time that the intermediate notes were generally varied in their succession with so much judgment, as to produce a most pleasing variety. It is to be remarked, that nightingales in general do not, in a wild state, sing more than ten weeks in the year; whilst those in cages continue their song for nine or ten months. Notwithstanding the naturally beautiful song of these birds, they readily adopt the notes of any other. They will even modulate their voice to a given key, and that so readily, that if any person whistle a note to it, the nightingale will immediately try in its strain an unison with that note.
Delightful as the song of the nightingale is, it is certain that some people have a dislike to it. We have even been told of a person who entertained so great an abhorrence for these birds as to have all the trees in his neighbourhood cut down, that, being thus without shelter, they might be driven away. It may perhaps be worth while to remark, in addition, that this person was delighted with the croaking of frogs.
The food of nightingales consists principally of insects, small worms, and the grubs of ants. They usually build their nests near the ground, among briers, in some low tree by a hedge or bush, and have four or five eggs.
148. The WHEAT-EAR, or WHITE-RUMP (Motacilla œnanthe), is a bird about the size of a sparrow, distinguished by its back being of a hoary colour; the forehead, a line above the eyes, and the rump being white, and by having a black band through each eye.
These birds are migratory, and found in the southern parts of England from about the beginning of May till the middle or end of September. They are also found on the continent of Europe, in Asia, and Africa.