CAGE ANjy siNGi>:a birds. 
diseases as the niglitiiig-ale^ Liit is more liable to decline^ 
ants' eggs, meal-worms, and an iron nail in the water which 
it drinks, are the best remedies. 
THE FAUVETTE OR I'ETTICHAP, SOMETIMES CALLED THE 
GARDEN WARBLER. 
This is a somewhat smaller bird than the blackcap ; the 
prevailing colour of its plumage is reddish gray, mingled 
with white and brown, of various shades; it is a plump 
handsomely shaped bird. Sweet says of its song, that it 13 
scarcely to be surpassed by any of the genus, the nightingale 
excepted. It may be first heard in our woods and copses 
towards the latter end of April, soon after the arrival of the 
bird; beginning very low, with a twitter something like that 
of the swallow, it gradually rises and swells, until it becomes 
as loud and almost as mellow as that of the blackbird, like 
which it continues singing with but little cessation through- 
out the whole day. It is generally found in gardens and 
plantations, feeding on fruit and caterpillars, especially those 
* green ones, which are the larvoe of the Papilio Brassicce or 
cabbage butterfly. It builds generally on trees or high 
shrubs, some ten or twelve feet from the ground, on which;, 
however, according to Macgillivray, it is sometimes placed ; 
the nest is loosely made of dry grass ; the eggs, from four to 
six in number, are of a dull white colour, dotted with light 
brown and gray. The young are hatched in about a fort- 
night, and begin to leave the nest as soon as the feathers 
appear. The old birds may be caught most easily in July^ 
August, and September, in springes baited with cherries, 
currants, elder-berries, or almost any soft fruit, of which 
they are very fond ; they may also, says Bechstein, be taken 
without difficulty in the water-trap, especially from seven to 
nine a. m., and in the evening, just before sunset. The bird 
is easily tamed, and will sing-, in confinement, nearly the 
whole year through ; it is very greedy, and will sometimes, 
especially if fed with nightingale's food, die of surfeit. It is 
a more delicate bird than the blackcap ; the term of its prison 
life, although Sweet kept one nearly double that time, seldom 
exceeding three years. If fed wholly on the universal paste, 
its feathers will soon begin to fall off, and the bird will perish 
