Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/458

 444 NIGHTINGALE NIGHTMARE claw. The length is 6| in., the extent of wings 10, and the bill about in. The nightingale is very plainly colored; the upper parts are rich brown, with a reddish tinge on the back and tail ; below grayish brown, with the throat Nightingale (Luscinia philomela). and abdomen whitish ; the female is like the male in color, and is nearly of the same size ; there is considerable variation in the reddish and grayish tints, and in the occurrence of white feathers. They begin to appear in the middle of France about the first week in April, and in England a week or ten days later ; the males arrive a few days before the females, travelling singly and at night ; they get mated in about a week, and commence their nests on the ground in thickets ; these are rudely made of leaves and grasses, and the four or five eggs, by T Vin., are of a pale brownish color, some- times tinged with grayish blue, especially at the small end ; both sexes incubate. It is a migrato- ry bird, passing the winter in northern Africa, but in the summer found over the greater part of Europe, even to Sweden and temperate Rus- sia ; it is said not to be found in Great Britain north of the Tweed. They begin to sing when mated, and continue in full song till the young are hatched ; the notes are most rich at the be- ginning of summer, and toward the end the song becomes a single low croaking note. They are very shy, remaining concealed as much as possible among the foliage ; they frequent woods, hedges, and thickets, feeding on insects and larvae, soft berries, and fruits ; the flight is short, even, and swift, but not so rapid as that of the true warblers and flycatchers which seize insects on the wing. Though the song is heard at intervals during the day, it excites the greatest admiration on quiet evenings an hour or two after sunset ; when the moon is nearly full and the weather is serene and still, it may be heard till midnight, and is then ex- ceedingly pleasing. Virgil and other classical poets, from the melancholy character of part of its song, call it miserabile carmen. Its natu- ral song is certainly very sweet, but not more so, in the opinion of Audubon, than that of the black-capped warbler, and but little if at all superior to that of the woodlark ; the song of the skylark is far more spirited, more prolonged, and of much greater compass, though less sweet ; the notes of the American mocking bird are very much sweeter, more varied, of greater compass, power, and dura- tion; and many birds which naturally have no song, like the bullfinch, can be taught to sing in perfect time and tune, which the nightingale cannot. But, take it as a whole, it is superior at least to that of all British songsters. The compass of its song is only 11 or 12 notes. (See Macgillivray's " British Birds," vol. ii., p. 331, London, 1839.) The males only sing, and, like other migratory birds, never during the winter in cages, and not till after the spring moult. They are short-lived in captivity from being kept too warm and from improper food ; this should be chiefly insects, or small bits of meat and fruits. JHGHTLVGALE, Florence, an English philan- thropist, born in Florence, Italy, in May, 1820. She is the younger daughter of William Edward Shore, a Sheffield banker, who inherited the estates of Peter Nightingale, and in accordance with the will assumed that surname. Florence early became proficient in the classics, mathe- matics, modern languages, and music ; but her favorite study was the methods of caring for the sick, and while a girl she visited numerous hospitals. In 1849 she underwent a course of training in Pastor Fliedner's school of deacon- esses at Kaisers werth. In 1851 she took charge of a sanatorium for infirm and invalid gov- ernesses in London, and soon brought it to a high state of efficiency. In 1854 she went to the army in the Crimea as superintendent of a corps of volunteer female nurses, 92 in num- ber, and organized a hospital at Scutari on Nov. 5. On the 7th they received 600 soldiers wounded at Inkerman, and in three weeks the number was increased to 3,000. In the face of great discouragements Miss Nightingale soon made her hospital a model for thorough- ness and perfection of arrangements, and all the other hospitals on the Bosporus were placed under her superintendence. She suffered a severe attack of hospital fever, and returned to England in September, 1856, with broken health, which has never been fully restored. The queen sent her a jewel and a letter of thanks, a fund of 50,000 was raised to found a school for nurses under her direction, and the soldiers of the Crimean war made a penny contribution to raise a statue in her honor, which she would not permit. She has pub- lished " The Institution at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine" (1850), "Notes on Hospitals" (1859), "Notes on Nursing" (1850), "Observations on the Sanitary State of the Army in India" (1863), " Notes on Lying-in Institutions " (1871), and " Life and Death in India " (1874). NIGHTMARti, or Incnbns, an affection coming on during sleep, in which there is a sense of