Note ¹ — XIV. The Fiendish Cat of the Sisters Delambre

I have postponed until now a note which should have been inserted some pages ago, but which would then have interrupted the narrative. References to the song of the nightingale in this chapter and elsewhere in this diary demonstrate, as I think, the innocent romanticism of Mr. Bannerlee. Neither he nor Mr. Maryvale appears to have possessed a rudimentary knowledge of birds. Nightingales, to be sure, visit Radnorshire, and the old ones do not leave until autumn, but of course their descant ceases in June, when the task of feeding the young becomes absorbing. Unquestionably, the bird these gentlemen listened to was the song-thrush, which (as is well known) resumes its singing in October, when the now-silent nightingale has departed from the land. (V. Markham.)