THE NIGHTINGALE. 79 



you may be sure that the hen is not far off; 

 if they have young ones he will now and 

 then be missing, and the hen when you are 

 near her nest, will sweet and cuv, if after 

 long search you cannot find it, stick two or 

 three meal worms on the thorns near to 

 where you find the cock most frequent, and 

 then stand still or lie down, but in such a 

 position that you may have a full view of 

 the worms, when you w-ill presently see 

 him conie and fetch them away: take no- 

 tice which way he carries them, and then 

 listen, when you will hear the young ones 

 making a chirping noise whilst the old ones 

 are feeding them. If the young ones be 

 not sufficiently fledged, do not touch them, 

 as the old ones will entice them away if they 

 find that they have been meddled with. 



Branchers are taken in July, or the begin- 

 ning of August, and old nightingales in the 

 latter end of March, or the beginning of 

 April: the old birds which are taken before 

 the twelfth of April are reckoned the best, 

 as after that time they begin to pair, and 

 those birds that are taken after they have 



