150 A HISTORY OF 



ar^5 as respectable for their voices as they might be deemed inconsid- 

 erable for their size. 



All these soft-billed birds, thus prized for their singing, are render- 

 ed domestic, and brought up with assiduity by such as are fond 

 of their voices in a cage. The same method of treatment serves for 

 all, as their food and their habits are nearly the same. The manner 

 of taking and treating them, particularly the nightingale, is this. 

 A nightingale's nest may be found by observing the place where the 

 male sings, and then by sticking two or three mealworms (a kind of 

 maggot found in flour) on some neighbouring thorn, which when he 

 sees he will infallibly bear away to his young. By listening he then 

 may be heard with the female chirping to the young ones while they 

 are feeding. When the nest is found, if the young are not fledged 

 enough to be taken, they must not be touched with the hands, for then 

 the old ones will perceive it, and entice them away. They should 

 not be taken till they are almost as full of feathers as the old ones ; 

 and though they refuse their meat, yet by opening their bills, you may 

 give them two or three small bits at a time, which will make them 

 soon grow tame, when they will feed themselves. They should be 

 put, nest and all, into a little basket, which should be covered up 

 warm, and they should be fed every two hours. Their food should be 

 sheep-hearts, or other raw flesh meat, chopped very fine, and all 

 the strings, skins, and fat taken away. But it should always be mix- 

 ed with hen's eggs, boiled hard, upon which they will feed and thrive 

 abundantly. 



They should then be put in cages, like the nightingale's back 

 cage, with a little straw or dry moss at the bottom ; but when they are 

 grown large they should have ants' mould. They should be kept very 

 clean, as indeed should be all singing-birds whatsoever, for otherwise 

 they will have the cramp, and perhaps the claws will drop off. In 

 autumn they will sometimes abstain from their food for a fortnight, 

 unless two or three meal-worms be given them twice or thrice a week, 

 or two or three spiders in a day : they must likewise have a little saf- 

 fron in their water. Figs chopped small among their meat will help 

 them to recover their flesh. When their legs are cramped, they 

 should be anointed with fresh butter, or capon's fat, three or four 

 days together. If they grow melancholy, put white sugar-candy into 

 their water, and feed them with sheep-heart, giving them three or 

 four meal-worms in a day, and a few ants with their eggs. They 

 should also have saffron in the water. 



With regard to adult birds, those that are taken before the twenty- 

 third of April are accounted the best, because after that they begin 

 to pair. They usually haunt woods, coppices, and quickset hedges, 

 where they may be taken in trap-cages baited with meal-worms. They 

 should be placed as near the spot where the bird sings as possible ; 

 and before you fix the trap, turn up the earth twice the breadth of the 

 cage, because they will there look for food. They are also taken with 

 lime twigs, placing them upon the hedge where they usually sing ; 

 and there should be meal-worms stuck at proper places to draw them 

 into the snare. After they are taken, their wings should be gently 

 tied with thread, to prevent their beating themselves against the cane. 

 This should be first hung in a private place, that the bird mav not b* 



