210 NATURAL HISTORY 



occurred that helped to explain to me what their sub- 

 sistence might be : all that I could ever find was a soft 

 mucus, among which lay many pellucid small gravels. 



I am, &c. 



25th of March. They generally leave us the beginning of September. 

 When they first arrive, they mostly frequent old buildings or outhouses, 

 for the sake of flies and small insects that often abound there. They 

 build their nest in a hole or crevice of a wall, or in a hollow tree. They 

 frequently ascend to the top of the highest tree within their haunt, and 

 there sit, sometimes for a considerable time, pouring out their quick and 

 sort of fretful song. When kept in confinement, I consider it the most 

 sensible, and if brought up from the nest, the most attached, of all small 

 birds ; but it may be considered the most tender of the whole tribe. It is 

 a real mocker, and if bred up from the nest, will learn the note or call of 

 almost any other bird. It will also learn a tune that is whistled or sung 

 to it, and will sing by night as well as by day, if a light be kept in the 

 room where it is. 



I was in possession of a handsome male bird of this species, which 

 I kept more than six years. It became very tame : though an old wild 

 bird when first caught, it was so attached to its cage, that one day having 

 got its liberty, it flew away into the gardens, where it staid six or seven 

 hours, after which it returned to its cage again. In the year 1825, I saw 

 a female bird of this species so late as the 21st of November, flying about 

 as lively as at Midsummer : it had probably escaped or been turned out 

 of a cage. The same sort of food as is recommended for the yellow wren 

 is equally applicable to the present: when in confinement it is particularly 

 partial to ants and their eggs, and to the common maggots. SWEET. 



[Birds kept in confinement are doubtless more subject to ailments than 

 those that have the free range of their natural haunts : and a knowledge 

 of the afflictions to which they are liable is important to those who charge 

 themselves with the care of such pets. Mr. Herbert has entered largely 

 into this subject in the subjoined note on the] 



DISEASES OF BIRDS. In a note concerning the instinct of birds (p. 64,) 

 I have had occasion to mention that some kinds are subject to a paralytic 

 stroke depriving them instantaneously of the use of their legs at a tender 

 age, and when a little older to a succession of epileptic fits which usually 

 prove fatal at last, in consequence of washing in cold water in confine- 

 ment under a low temperature. Such epileptic fits are also frequently 

 brought on by fear; blackcaps, and blue-grays or lesser whitethroats, 

 and pettychaps, which have been fed in a cage through the wires by the 

 old birds, are very subject to be attacked, when they grow up, with epi- 

 lepsy ; which appears to arise from the agitation of nerve which has 

 existed while the old birds were with them, and timidity after they are 

 withdrawn ; and, when the system is so affected, a bird flying across the 

 room, or close to the window, will occasion a fit by the sudden alarm it 

 creates. The titmouse tribe, which are in constant activity when at 

 liberty, are particularly subject to apoplexy and epilepsy when confined 



