44 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



journeyed, through ravines, past hill-sides where the crimson 

 fruit of the arbutus, called here * Frooli di Montagna,' or 

 mountain strawberries, tempted us to linger awhile, past 

 vineyards where the sere and rapidly dying leaves augured 

 little as yet for that purple cluster which would depend from 

 every branch when the heat of summer had again clothed 

 them with verdure, past the orange trees and their now 

 small unripe fruit hiding amid glossy dark green leaves, 

 until some miles had been traversed ; and we stood at last, 

 before the sun had risen high enough to dispel all the night 

 mists on the far-off mountains, on the summit of a hill over- 

 looking the sea, from which we expected the thrushes to 

 arrive. We were not the only tenants of the spot we had 

 selected, however, as there were two or three countrymen 

 stationed under the cover of as many trees. My friend now 

 produced his whistle, which was a round hollow piece of 

 silver (though mostly constructed of copper) about one inch 

 in diameter, convex on one side, and concave on the other, 

 with a hole right through the centre. The concave part is 

 placed in the mouth, pressing against the teeth, and by 

 inspiring the breath, and modulating the tones with the 

 closed or open hands, as the case may be, a very perfect 

 imitation of the song thrush's note is the result. This the 

 arriving or newly arrived birds hear, and imagining that it 

 proceeds from the throat of one of their species, alight in the 

 trees which surround and conceal the treacherous imitator, 

 and quickly fall a prey to the ready gun. So infatuated are 

 they, that enormous quantities are killed by this method 

 early in the season ; in fact, I know one person who shot one 

 hundred and four, besides other birds, to his own gun in 

 one day. 



" In this particular instance the effect was wonderful, for 

 the whistles had not been sounding long before high up in 

 the clear air, some half mile away over the sea, some tiny 

 specks appeared. ' Thrushes ? ' queries my friend of another 

 posted a few yards from him. This ascertained, the whistling 



