BREEDING SEASONS. 11 
long before you can get near them. If little bushes or tufts of grass 
are scattered about here and there, the pony should be guided to pass 
close by them; and if a lark or pipit or other bird of similar habits 
should happen to have a nest under the shelter of one of them, the bird 
will rise sometimes almost at the horse’s feet. For thick low jungle where 
the riding plan fails, the place should be beaten or dragged with a rope, 
which latter will make even quail, which are exceedingly close sitters, 
rise from their eggs. The object of the rapid approach on horseback 
is to startle the bird and make it rise hurriedly, as otherwise it would 
creep quietly away unobserved to the other side of the bush. 
With gregarious birds the matter is more simple, the breeding 
haunts may easily be found in most cases, except when the powers of 
flight are very great as with the spinetails and swiftlets, by noting 
where they tend to congregate when the proper season arrives. When 
once the breeding ground is known, it is easy to find the individual 
nests. 
A plan tried by Captain Cock of nailing up a sheepskin to a tree, 
and watching with binoculars the birds that came to take the wool, was 
found very successful with tits and some small birds, but experience is 
the best guide in all cases; and with these general remarks I must have 
the reader to arrange his own course of action in each case. 
