PROCURING SUBJECTS. 
heard—haunter of ancient ruins—he flits about with melan- 
choly, sepulchral sounds, with his Too-whoo, too-whoo !—fittine 
sounds for the “ivy-mantled tower,” his usual abode. Some 
knowledge of the animal or bird which is to be the object of pur- 
suit is thus indispensable. In the season of reproduction, when 
incubation has made some advance, it would be both wicked 
and cruel to destroy the female. Again, in the moulting season 
it would be waste of time as well as cruelty to attack them. 
The best season, perhaps, is the early pairing season: the plu- 
mage or fur is then most brilhant; the migratory species have 
recovered from the effects of their long journey, and their lives 
are redolent of hope and joy. It is, perhaps, a piece of cruelty 
to mtercept so much happiness; but then how are collections to 
be made without exposing collectors to the charge? In my 
own experience I have found the best localities to be some one 
or other of those long green lanes, between high hedgerows, 
which form the charm of our rural scenery. If an occasional 
clump of young plantations intervene, there will be found the 
titmouse, chaffinch, yellowhammer, and most of our songsters, 
in great abundance; and should there be a watercourse by the 
side of the hedgerow, blackbirds and thrushes will be found. 
For larks you must look in the open grassy fields, or among the 
Waving corn in summer; in winter they nestle and shelter 
themselves under the broad leaf of the turnip and other green 
crops. 
Magpies, jays, woodpeckers, and the wood-pigeon haunt the 
more densely-wooded districts; and there also must the owls 
and the falcon tribes, which breed with us, be sought. Rooks, 
as is well known, affect some ancient grove near some ancestral 
home, the loftiest branches of which they colonize, hundreds of 
them together; whilst the carrion crow, often confounded with 
the rooks, builds in some solitary tree in a hedgerow. Star- 
lings are found in short decayed trees and deserted towers, 
when not assembled in flocks. I have a kindly recollection of 
one of these amusing birds which I once possessed. His usual 
morning’s salutation to me was a “ Good morning, sir. Pretty 
creature. Jacob’s mistress pretty creature,”—Jacob being his 
own name. He would then imitate the canary so closely 
as to render it nearly impossible to distinguish one from the 
other in the lower notes. 
The haunts of the moor-fowl, dabchick, and coot, and other 
fresh-water birds, are, of course, widely different from these 
localities. Among the flags and reeds by the river-side their 
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