the British Song Bud. 85 



it a fair trial I think that three relays of ten birds each, properly 

 mated, should be turned out at intervals of a month, for three 

 years in succession. Their favorite food shoidd be left accessible, 

 that they might be driven only gradually to find their own. If 

 we could get them at anything like the price I have mentioned, 

 this would cost us about thirty or forty pounds a-year, or a 

 hundred or hundred and twenty pounds in all. But if it cost 

 us twice that sum I think that properly divided amongst us it 

 would be a very insignificant price to pay for such an addition 

 to the general stock of hajjpiness — such an addition to the 

 various attractions of the colony, as this magnificent songstress 

 would unquestionably be. Such interest do I take in the expe- 

 riment that if it should be taken up by any one else, with a 

 spirit likely to lead to its success, I would willingly subscribe to 

 aid in giving it a fair trial ; but in any event, I will try what I 

 can do in that way myself, and, with fife and health, it shall go 

 hard with me if I do not succeed. 



If it be deemed advisable to add to the stock of skylarks 

 which may now be in the colony, I think that they would be 

 much more easily managed. The neighbourhood of any corn 

 field near town would suit them ; although they shoidd be let 

 loose in a place where corn is left to ripen, not cut as hay, as 

 the removal of the latter might destroy their nests. They 

 should be bought cheaply enough. In one of the works to 

 which I have referred, I find it stated that from the neighbour- 

 hood of Dunstable alone 4000 dozen of these birds are annually 

 sent to London for the table ; and if consigned in such numbers 

 to so pitiable a fate, we surely might get cheaply a few dozens 

 for conversion to a very much better purpose. 



I am encouraged to think that these experiments would 

 answer, as Mr. Brown tells me that he and his partners have 

 already succeeded in introducing both the nightingale and the 

 skylark into the neighbourhood of New York. He assures me 

 that the one is heard constantly in the cemetery of that 

 city, a place less suited for it than our Botanical Gardens, and 

 that the other is heard carolling joyfully over the corn fields in 

 that State, just as it does in England. 



If we succeed with these, we might then proceed to other 

 kinds, although it might be questionable how far it would be 

 expedient to bring out some of them, particularly fruit-eating 

 kinds. This will, I think, one day be a great fruit country, and 

 such birds as live mainly upon fruit might become more a 

 trouble than a benefit. They might even teach the native birds 

 to imitate them, for some of my country friends have told me 



