206 THE NIGHTINGALE. 



MODE OF TAKING. The great difficulty of catching this bird makes it 

 Bcarce in our rooms. The only means is to ascertain well the place it fre- 

 quents, then to scratch up the earth and throw upon it some meal-worms, 

 and cover the place with limed twigs. 



ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES With a more beautiful and musical voice, its 

 song is also more varied than that of the song-thrush, without being so long, 

 o sustained, or so brilliant, as that of the nightingale, with which it most 

 deserves to be compared. Some of its couplets resemble those of the black- 

 cap, but broken, like those of the song-thrush. When caged it may be 

 much improved by imitation of the notes of the nightingale, which the 

 young easily copy. It is particularly in the morning and evening that the 

 reed-thrush utters his beautiful warblings. Not only is his throat then in 

 motion ; his wings, his tail, and his whole body, are agitated as if to follow 

 the cadence and the measure. 



THE NIGHTINGALE. 



Motacilla Luscinia, LINN.KUS ; Le Rossignol, BUFFON ; Die Nachtigall, BECHSTEIN 



THIS bird, whose plumage is very ordinary, is scarcely five 

 inches long, two and a half of which belong to the tail. But, in 

 confinement, when it is well fed, and especially when it has 

 been bred from the nest, it is commonly larger, reaching some- 

 times the size of a lark. The straight beak is seven lines in 

 length, thin, with the two mandibles of nearly the same size, and 

 dark brown above, light gray below, flesh-coloured at the base, 

 and yellow within; the iris is brownish grey. The shanks, 

 three quarters of an inch high, are flesh-coloured ; the upper 

 part of the body is brownish gray, tinted with rust-red, and in 

 very old birds is reddish ash-coloured. 



Among individuals in confinement, some are lighter, others 

 darker. When placed in the windows of a large well-lighted 

 room, which is not exposed to smoke, they are in the upper 

 parts dark gray, or lieht brownish gray, and the feathers have a 



