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 Mr. More states that it is thought

numerous.

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 Nightingale's 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 offereda woody shelter, it is true, and a shady one, although of a very different kind to that which the birds had been accustomed to.

The observations made upon the Tree Pipit, twenty-one in number, call for no particular comment, save that the direction of the wind at several dates of supposed arrival was from a S.W. or S.E. quarter, corresponding with what has been observed of other migratory birds, and tending to show that they prefer to travel with a side wind rather than with a head wind or the reverse.

In the eastern counties, for example, it was observed that the Tree Pipit arrived in Norfolk with a S.S.E. wind, the temperature being 52°; in Lincolnshire with a wind veering from

S. to S.E. and E., the weather dry, cold, and cloudy; in Yorkshire with a S.W. wind, weather fine, and temperature 47'5°. It was first observed at Bushey, in Hertfordshire, as if arriving directly from the eastward, on the 8th of April; and was last heard at Ratham, near the coast of Sussex, on Sept. 15. The furthest point north at which it was noted was near Stirling on May 1. In Ireland it is unknown.

In the case of the Sedge Warbler, we again remark observations on the wind at the presumed dates of arrival in all respects confirmatory of what has been already stated. Four good observers in the counties of Norfolk, Lincoln, Derby, and York noted the direction of the wind when first meeting with this bird as S.S.E., S.W., S.E., and S.S.W., respectively. No record of its occurrence in 1872 either in Scotland or Ireland was received. The general period of its arrival in England seems to be during the last fortnight of April.

About the same period arrives the Yellow Wagtail, or Ray's Wagtail, as it is called by