17 OCTOBER 1908, Page 19

THE NIGHTINGALE IN OCTOBER.

i-Tc, THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR...1 SIR,—I read with interest and sympathy the letter in your last number from "An Observant Invalid." If, however, the writer will turn to the "Encyclopedia Britannica," Vol. XVII., p. 498, he, or she, will be cautioned against "introducing the nightingale in England before the 15th of April or after the 15th of June." I may add that the late Rev. J. G. Wood in his "illustrated Natural History: Birds," Vol. II., p. 285, says that "towards the end of June when the young birds are hatched," &c., &a. I cannot, therefore, think that an October nightingale can be in very full song.—I am, Sir, &c., Chiculdah, Weston-super-Mare. E. P. FRY.