389 
mentioned above, continued to live with me upwards of five years, 
was an excellent and bold songbird, and taught the young to sing 
nearly equal to himself. The young sing through the winter, when 
kept in a warm room, but do not become perfect in their song till 
late in spring : the old ones, mostly begin in January, and continue 
their song till June. In one instance, I decoyed an old female 
Nightingale home, whose nest was upwards of a mile from tlio 
house, by putting the young into a cage, and suffering her to feed 
them every 20 or 30 yards; the old cock would not go the 
whole distance. After the old bird had attended them 8 or 10 
days, I made choice of some, and took the others liack (with their 
mother when caught) to the place from whence I had taken them. 
The ohl cock, immediately on their being liberated, bunst out into a 
song, and soon commenced to feed his young. The Niglitingale is 
a bird most easily taken, with a silk net-trap and mealworm if you 
know his haunts. Those taken in April, when they make their 
first appearance, are the best songbirds, but most difficult to tame. 
The young taken in August or September, just before they bake 
tlieir dejiarture for another climate, are all good, but not equal to 
the former, unless they are kept in company with a good songbird 
to make them perfect. The young are generally found late in the 
season, on the sides of fields, planted with beans or peas, Init 
mostly beans. They have a certain call, wate, tcafe ; cur, cur, 
which they often repeat at the setting of the sun, about the’ same 
time that the partridges make their call ; and by setting a net-trap 
baited with a mealworm, near by in the midst of the hedge or 
thicket, after scraping aAvay the grass and leaves to make the earth 
look fresh, you are sure to take them. None, that I have kept, 
except the first, were ever capable of articulating words ; but none 
were taken so young, nor had such attention paid them. Those 
abiding in fields, near paths, and roadsides, are mostly easily tamed 
when taken. Those taken in Avoods I have never yet been able to 
keep alive, altho’ I’vo made many and frequent attempts ; but 
Avhether it is owing to a different and more delicate kind of food 
they meet nitli there, or being of a more timid and fearful 
disposition, I could never learn; probably it is partly owing to botli 
cause.s. Ibis I liave done, after being unable to make them feed, 
I have given them tlieir liberty again whilst Aveak from AA’ant of 
food ; I let them go by the side of some field of beans near home. 
