WHY THE NIGHTINGALE SINGS AT NIGHT

Evening Star, Issue 21823, 12 September 1934, Page 12

WHY THE NIGHTINGALE SINGS AT NIGHT

LURING DAGGER FROM NEST Mr George Hearn, in his book, ‘True Dramas of Wild Life,’ has for an opening chapter an account of the nightingale. He writes;— On visiting the nest when it contained its complement of four uniform, olive-brown eggs, my wife remarked: “ We will return to-night, as there will be much glorious music here, for the nest is in a rather open spot, and the cock bird will have to exercise keen vigilance and make extra music to get tho attention of any enemy that may approach, and so prevent them from discovering the nest.” This, by the way, is why cock nightingales sing at night—to attract the attention of any night prowler, such as a stoat, weasel, snake, or cat. Perched on a branch above the nest, ho would sing his loudest on the approach of an enemy and thus endeavour to make it raise its eyes upward and get its attention till it had passed on. It is a procedure which, at first probably only a casual act, was found to bo useful to the race and has become an instinctive habit.

similar statement made in my previous book, ‘ Strange Happenings in Wild Life,’ brought down on me the wrath of a naturalist critic, who su'd. “ The idea is fantastic, especially in view of the fact that so soon as a nest contains chicks the male nightingale ceases singing—at a time when, apparently, it is most needed! ” . In reply, I said that when nightingale eggs had become nestlings the male parent ceased his day and evening singing to got busy in helping to feed them, ho being loyal both to his wife and chicks. .Ami even a nightingale needs a certain amount of sleep after two or three weeks of more or less sleepless vigilance, so his night singing stops also—but not completely. ... I found by experiment that if the slightest sound occurred in the vicinity of the nest at night which might sug-

gest the approach of an enemy the female, covering the chicks or roosting alongside them and now doing her share of night vigilance, immediately sent out an animal-like sound (the well-known “ croak ” which is the alarm cry of parent nightingales and rarely used at other times), which was usually suffir-’ent to arouse her mate perched overhead without giving the approaching enemy an idea of the presence of a bird at the nest. The male at once began to sing to pet the attention of the intruder. If necessary, the female moved away from the nest to lure the enemy away. ... So far as I know, no better theory has been advanced tn nc-onnt for the night singing of nightingales.