BEITISH SONG BIRDS. 



285 



in a city, are often the source of unmingled pleasure to the plodding 

 money-getting citizen ; and the poor weaver, though plunged in the 

 utmost depths of penury, feels pleasure, whilst plying the busy loom, 

 in teaching bulfinches to warble national airs, and in training gold- 

 finches to perform their interesting little tricks. The humble peasant 

 also finds amusement in teaching his starling to talk while hanging 

 in its wicker cage upon " the woodbine arbour," and often a country 

 cobbler may be seen sitting near the window of his snug roadside 

 cottage, progressing cheerily with his work, and ever and anon 

 pausing to listen with rapture and pride of heart to his blackbird 

 piping some heart-cheering ditty or plaintive love song which he has 

 taught it. 



BIRD CATCHING. 



Boys residing in London, or any large town, may always procure 

 good, healthy birds, of strong musical powers, by applying to respect- 

 able bird-fanciers ; whilst those who live in the country must either 

 take the young from their nests and rear them, or use various con- 

 trivances in which to ensnare them; and there are, perhaps, few 

 things which afford such an inexhaustible fund of amusement to 

 country lads as bird-catching. In the budding days of spring, the 

 sunny hours of summer, the sombre autumn, and the chill, piercing 

 days of winter, they may set their cunningly-contrived nets and 

 exert their skill in the construction of traps, the making of which 

 will find them employment on winter nights by the fireside. 



The common BKICK TRAP employed 

 by the veriest children in bird trap- 

 ping, is made of four bricks and a tile : 

 two of the bricks are placed length- 

 ways, parallel with each other, and 

 the others are put at the ends; the 

 tile acting as a cover, and to support 

 it, a stump is driven into the ground, 

 as represented at A, in the annexed en- 

 graving ; upon this stump, one end of 

 a forked twig B, is rested, and the 

 other end is jutted close to the cross 

 brick; on this forked twig 1 , a short 

 straight bit of stick C, is placed, and 

 fragile as the support seems, the whole 



