82 



Pictures of Bird Life 



the desired spot. Meal-worms are the o-reat honnc-hoiiv/ic 

 f'oi- Xiohtiiigales ; but Robins are equally fond of them: and 

 as these latter are mueh more numerous and twiee as bold, 

 the ehanees are that some hungry Kobin will diseover the 

 attraetive morsel first and promptly annex it. And if a 

 llobin onee finds out that you are puttino- out Fiieal-worms, 

 it will eome again and again, and seize them as fast as 

 you can put them out, without waiting till your back is 

 turned ; so that, unless you want to be ruined in plates, 

 you will have to give it up and select another })laee. 

 Even at a nest you may perhaps get another than the 

 rightful owner thereof, and the residt may possibly be 

 more valuable ; for the negati^'e of an egg-stealing Crow 

 caught in fUi^vdutc (Jelicto, or of a Cuckoo visiting some 

 small bird's nest with felonious intent, would be of extreme 

 interest and value. There is, in fact, all the uncertainty 

 of regular trapping without the element of cruelty wliich 



is almost uiunoid- 

 able. 



Instead of the 

 long hours of hope- 

 less suffering and 

 intolerable agony, 

 only to end in a 

 cruel death, the 

 bird or animal, by 

 simply touching a 



Nightingale taking Meal-worm. thl'Cad. ll a S rC- 



