SONG BIRDS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



very prettily, and that not unfrequently suspended 

 on the wing over the furze. It always sits on 

 the top branches of a bush watching for flies, its 

 principal food ; and, like the fly-catchers, will 

 dart into the air, and return to the same spray 

 repeatedly. 



Mr. Sweet observes, its song is not one of the 

 best ; still, among other birds, it makes a pleasing 

 variety. It is very easily taken in a trap baited 

 with some living insect, and soon gets familiar 

 in a cage, where it will readily take to feed on 

 the bruised hemp-seed and bread, if a few insects 

 are stuck in it at first ; it is also very fond of 

 raw lean meat cut in small pieces, or of the yolk 

 of a boiled egg : it will feed on almost every kind 

 of insect, and is particularly fond of small beetles, 

 earwigs, and butterflies. It is, however, a very 

 tender bird to keep in confinement, as it is very 

 impatient of cold. 



These birds (says Bechstein) vary till the third 

 year. The young ones, which may be seen perched 

 on cabbages and other plants, even on strong wheat- 

 stalks, have the whole of the upper part of the 

 body covered with red and blackish spots, and each 

 feather edged with this colour, before the first 

 moulting: the under part of the body is like the 

 female. 



In the house they must be kept in a Nightingale's 

 cage. 



