80 THE NIGHTINGALE. 



paired seldom come to any thing, it being 

 very difficult to preserve them. 



When you have found the bird's haunts, 

 you may easily take him with a trap cage, 

 baited with a meal worm ; place the trap as 

 near to where the bird sings as you pos- 

 sibly can, and if it be in the middle of a 

 hedge, or near some place where he feeds, 

 turn up the earth before you fix the trap 

 about twice the bigness of the trap itself, as 

 they are known to search for food in places 

 where the ground is newly turned up : 

 should they not come soon, turn up a fresh 

 spot of earth as big again as the former, 

 and you will presently have them, as they 

 iiever leave a spot to which they usually re- 

 sort, it bfeing the custom of this bird to 

 take possession on his arrival in this coun- 

 try, of one spot, which he never quits till 

 his departure, and into the precincts of 

 w^hich he never admits any other nightingale 

 but his mate. 



These birds are taken likewise with lime- 

 twigs, by placing them in the hedges near 

 where they sing, with meal worms fastened 



