45



on your approach, so long they are ignorant of their parents, for ’tis a mere

reflex action. For when they begin “to take notice,” the ugly maw is no

longer opened at your approach. You must not, however, wait for that

period of development, but take them just before, when they are fledged.

Seize them boldly, forgetful of the sentimentalist, and cage them, placing

the cage on a stout branch near the nest, and the old birds will feed them.


“ A few hours later you may move them up the whitethorn decorated

lane for a couple of hundred yards, and so on tip to half a mile, but no

farther, in one day—that is a young Goldfinch’s infant day’s journey. So

by degrees you decoy the parents into your garden. When the parents get

tired of feeding your captives, make pills of eggs and flour, and give them

together with plantain-seeds and thistle tops; and so you shall educate

them to sing when you blow your slender lire with the bellows; and, if you

be a woman, destitute of human lovers, you may teach the little brown-

billed bird to kiss you—but a man’s kiss is preferable.


“Unless you wish him to sing another’s song, for he is of the mean

tribe of plagiarists, keep him, when young, out of the hearing of other

birds, as he, like many a human parrot, prefers the songs of others to his

own. But for any purpose whatsoever, I do not think his company is

worth his keep.”


Mr. Emerson’s style is attractive in spite of sundry

irritating affectations, and he is evident^ a diligent student

of nature and no mere retailer of second-hand facts. The

illustrations are all from photographs, and many of them are

exceedingly good.


The author’s habit of heading his chapters with the local

East Anglian names of the birds, is most confusing. The

average reader cannot be expected to know that “ Firetail ” is

Norfolk for Redstart, “Herring-spink ” for Golden-crested Wren,

“ Reed-pheasant ” for Bearded-tit, “ Spinx ” for Chaffinch, and

“ Gool-finch ” for Yellowhammer.


The autumn fights between the old and young cock

Robins are well known, but it is new to us to read that in these

contests it is almost invariably the father Robin who comes off

second-best. The battles frequently end in the death of one of

the combatants, and Mr. Emerson has been assured by many

an old Broadsman that the bodies left on the field are alwaj^s

those of old birds.


It seems that birds on their migration, captured on board

fishing smacks, are found to suffer at first from sea-sickness, and

throw up their food. But, like human voyagers, they speedily

recover from the complaint, and feed heartily.


The following account of the nesting of that rare bird,

the Bearded Tit, is in Mr. Emerson’s best style.


“ You may find as many as nine eggs in a nest, but five is the more

usual number; and they will, if robbed, build five or six nests in a season,

moreover, and not far from the spot where the first cradle was lodged. Nine

days suffice for those little architects to complete a new home, which is



