CAGE AND SINGING BIRDS. 
51 
flings throughout the whole day, and may frequently be 
heard late into the night with its chity chit I chiddy, 
chiddyl chity chit^ chit! It may be readily caught in 
a nightingale trap, baited with a living caterpillar or a 
butterfly. It is a lively bird, and shows scarcely any symp- 
toms of fear, soon becoming friendly with those who treat 
it with due gentleness. 
It should, when first caught, be put into a large cage or 
aviary with other small birds, and supplied with plenty of 
insect food. It may be induced to eat the bruised hemp- 
seed gnd bread, by the mixture therewith of flies, cater- 
pillars, and maggots ; the yolk of egg*, boiled hard and 
Ijruised up with water, should be given it occasionally. The 
bird is very fond of bathing, and, in the summer, may be 
allowed this luxury ad libitum; but in the winter, only 
once a week, and that in the morning. If properly managed, 
the sedge wren, as it is sometimes called, will sing nearly 
all the year through. Bechstein says nothing about this 
bird. 
THE REED WARBLER. 
Between this bird, which is sometimes called the reed 
wren, or the marsh reedling, and the sedge warbler, there is 
a very close resemblance both in appearance and habits. 
Brown and yellowish white are the prevailing colours of its 
plumage, and there is the same streak on each side of the 
head. It dwells, while here, chiefly among reeds and 
rushes, by rivers and in marshy places; there it builds its 
curious nest, shaped like a long bag or pocket, of dried grass 
and the seed vessels of the tall aquatic plants to which it is 
suspended, some feet above the ground or water, so that it 
rocks about in the wind like a hammock; the eggs are 
greenish white, spotted with olive brown and gray. Bech- 
stein says that this bird may often be caught by taking up a 
turf, and placing limed twigs over the spot, with a few meal* 
worms for bait ; and, according to Sweet, it may readily b4 
taken in a trap baited with a small moth or green cater- 
pillar, especially about August and the beginning of Septem- 
ber, when it resorts to the gardens and dung-heaps, where 
the house flies, of which it is very fond, are coming out of 
the pupa state in great numbers. When first caught, thi 
