5 JULY 1945, Page 16

A Thousand Nightingales !

Have nightingales begun to change their migrational habits? There is no doubt that this year they were much more numerous in parts of Norfolk than usual, and much rarer in parts of the South. A soldier on leave more than once heard at least four singing in concert near Thetford, and on asking the local post-mistress whether this was unusual, got the reply " Oh, there are thousands, or they sound like thousands." The same soldier, who has been in India for the last eight or nine years, writes with lyric enthusiasm of the " incredible greenness of this Eng- land." I have heard even a visitor from the island that has appropriated the attribute green, express a like wonder.