102 NOTES TO THE 



at early morning and twilight ; they do not sing much in the 

 middle of hot days. If the woods had not been preserved there 

 would not have been one nightingale left. Nightingales are caught 

 almost anywhere, within a radius of twenty miles round the 

 suburbs of London, such as Sydenham, Kew, Epping Forest, 

 Edgeware, and Dartford. As a rule, the cocks arrive from eight 

 to ten days before the hens, and when they arrive they take 

 up positions, as the locality suits. They delight in hedgerows, 

 copses, spinneys, &c. As soon as they arrive, if the weather 

 is mild, they commence their song, but if the weather is cold 

 and frosty, they keep very mute. They are caught in this 

 manner : the bird-catcher finds a bush which they frequent, he 

 then makes a "scrape" with a hoe, that is, he turns up the 

 ground to draw the attention of the bird, who comes to look 

 for insects on the fresh turned ground. He then places the 

 trap, baited with a meal-worm. If the birds attempt to 

 ramble away they are driven back by pelting. A round net 

 .trap, about a foot across is used ; it is baited with maggots or 

 meal-worms placed on a pin. A very enticing bait is a " black- 

 beetle, belly uppermost," which is quickly seen by the bird. A 

 pin is run through the blackbeetle and he is fastened to the 

 cork of the trap, the playing of the legs attracts the nightin- 

 gale, he " kurrs " when he sights the bait, presently down he 

 comes, and on touching the bait is instantly netted. The 

 " standing net " is better than the " Jack-in-the-box " trap. 1 

 The bird-catcher wheets and kurrs to the nightingale and does 

 a portion of the song, thus : "Churr, kurr, wheet ;" the night- 

 ingale answers by singing, as he thinks it is the challenge 

 of another nightingale a stranger come on his beat. In the 

 autumn nightingales do not sing, they only wheet and kurr. As 

 soon as they get clean moulted they leave this country. It is 

 difficult to " meat off" nightingales, that is, to make them feed. 

 In former times a live meal-worm was put into a glass tube, just 

 large enough to hold him. The following is the plan now 

 adopted. An ordinary watch-glass is placed in a small tin dish ; 

 iinderneath the glass are placed live meal-worms, which of 

 course keep crawling about roiind the edges of the inside of 

 the glass ; well scraped beef and hard-boiled egg are then piled 

 round the outside edge of the glass. The birds seeing the worms 

 moving about, come and peck at them, their beaks glance off 

 the glass, and at almost every peck they get a little of the 

 food. After they have been induced to feed, the glass is taken 

 away and they feed themselves, and there is no further trouble. 



' A trap where the net is concealed in a box. 



