Poets of all ages have given the song of the Nightingale a great deal of attention, but how strangely they have gone astray in regard to the bird’s habits! It appears to have appealed to most of them on account of its practice of singing by night, and the touch of melancholy in the three or four lengthened notes that commence softly and gradually rise until they are so loud and strong that they may be heard at a great distance. Curiously enough, they made the mistake of thinking that their Philomel only sang by night, and was the solitary bird that did so. Even our immortal William of Avon says: “The Nightingale, if he should sing by day When every goose is cackling would be thought No better a musician than the Wren.” The fact that the bird sings by day as well as by night was known, however, to the ancients, because Virgil mentions it. Readers of this little volume will also gather that other feathered musicians, such as the Sedge and Grasshopper Warblers, Woodlark, and Cuckoo, also sing by night. Individual members of this species differ in the quality of their notes, as was observed as far back as Pliny’s time. The alarm note sounds like _wate, wate_, _cur, cur_, or _witt, krr_. [Illustration: woodland scene] =THE LESSER WHITETHROAT.= [Illustration: flowers with butterfly] The Lesser Whitethroat arrives in April and leaves again in September. It is far less numerous than its larger relative, and is not so widely distributed over the British Islands. This bird is most plentiful in the South and East of England, becoming scarcer towards the North and West, rare in Scotland, and absent altogether from Ireland as a breeding species. It measures just over five inches in length, and has the upper parts greyish-brown, wings and tail dusky, the feathers being edged with greyish-brown instead of chestnut, which distinguishes it from the Greater Whitethroat. The under parts are greyish-white. This species loves high, thick hedges rather than large woods, and builds its nest, which is a slight and flimsy structure made of dead grass, stalks, and lined with horsehair, in hedges, briar, bramble, gorse, and other bushes. [Illustration: LESSER WHITETHROAT’S NEST AND EGGS.] The eggs, four or five in number, are white or light creamy white, with the faintest suggestion of green in ground colour, spotted and speckled with ash-grey and greenish-brown. [Illustration: LESSER WHITETHROAT FEEDING YOUNG.] The Lesser Whitethroat is inferior to the Greater as a musician, but makes up for its deficiency in quality by its liberality in regard to quantity, for it sings almost incessantly, especially during sultry weather, and keeps on until very late in the summer. Its notes are without variation, hurriedly delivered, and sound like _sip, sip, sip_. The bird’s call notes have been likened to the words _check, check_. [Illustration: landscape with pastures] =THE SISKIN.= [Illustration: fir branch]