84 
CAGE AND SINGING BIRDS, 
by a week or so, hence bird-catchers are always on the look- 
out for the first arrivals. They are easily taken in a trap 
baited with mealworms, or some other living insects, planted 
near their favourite haunts, which are gTOves and coppices, 
usually in a low sheltered valley, watered by a gentle stream, 
where the ground is moist and insect food abundant. In 
these places they are caught in great numbers as soon as they 
arrive, so that the bird marts of Whitechapel and Seven 
Dials are for a time stocked with sweet songsters, for which 
purchasers are soon found. Five shillings is the price com- 
monly asked for a good healthy male nightingale that has 
become in some degree habituated to his imprisonment, and 
shows no disposition to sulk or mope, as many of them will 
do. A purchase should by no means be concluded until the 
bird has been heard to sing more than once, and its motions 
watched somewhat narrowly, as there are "tricks in all 
trades," not even excepting bird-selling. It would be well, 
if possible, to get the songster on trial for a short time, to 
ascertain if the change of situation affected him, as night- 
ingales ai'e capricious birds, and if " put out," will sometimes 
remain obstinately mute, and pine away and die, as it would 
seem, of grief and vexation of spirit. They will sometimes, 
also, when first taken, pour out their lives in melody — actually 
kill themselves with singing what appears to be a passionate 
complaint of their ill-starred fate. A very loud and inces- 
sant songster should therefore be cautiously approached; 
better wait, and see if the fit lasts. In abundant seasons a 
good male bird may sometimes be bought for 25. 6d.; the 
price varies from that to 7s. Qd., according to the size and 
appearance of the bird, and the quality of the song. More 
than the minimum price should not be given for hens, which 
are sometimes wanted for stocking aviaries. None but a 
connoisseur can distinguish a full grown male from a female 
nightingale, except by the song : the shape of both is slender 
and elegant, the legs long, generally rather more so in the 
male ; the beaks narrow and pointed ; the plumage of the 
upper part of the body of a grayish brown, with a sUght 
rusty tinge, which, in very old birds, becomes more of an 
ashy gray. Towards the rump the brown tinge deepens and 
inclines more to red. The breast and sides are pale gray | 
the pinion feathers grayish brown, with a rusty yellow mar- 
