their colour also varies considerably on different birds, 
some of them being particularly handsome. 
In confinement this species requires the same food 
and treatment as the Nightingale, bruised hemp-seed 
and bread mixed up together into a moist paste ; and 
some fresh, raw, lean beef, or mutton, cut in pieces 
small enough for them to swallow, is to be mixed with 
it, for I find they like the meat much better when 
soaked in the bread and hemp-seed, or if only soaked 
in clean water, than they do when not soaked at all ; 
besides this I always have an egg boiled quite hard 
every day ; it is then cut in two, and the yolk stirred 
up in each half, and put in the cages, so that they may 
peck it out of the shell themselves; this is a change of 
food for them which keeps them in health ; whereas if 
it was mixed up with other food, it would not be a 
change, and would not do them half the good ; one egg 
with the other food, is sufficient for twenty birds for 
one day. The more insects they have given them, the 
better will be their health, and the more they will sing ; 
they will feed on a great many sorts, and when in a 
wild state they scarcely eat any thing besides; any 
sorts of flies, moths, butterflies, caterpillars, maggots, 
woodlice, earwigs, grasshoppers, crickets, cockroaches, 
ants, or small beetles, they are very fond of, and nu- 
merous other sorts. 
In confinement this bird will sing all through the 
Winter, and a great part of the year ; it will also sing 
frequently by night as well as by day ; it has a very 
pretty and loud song, and when in confinement its 
song is continued for a good length of time, not conti- 
nually broken off in short notes, like the wild ones. 
If bred up from the nest, I have no doubt but it would 
learn the notes of other birds, or even any tune that 
was played to it, as I believe will the greater part of 
this tribe, if a little pains be taken with them. I have 
at present a young Whinchat, that was reared by hand 
from the nest last Summer, and now, in the middle of 
December, it sings all day long, and a great part of 
the night, singing the notes of the Whitethroat, Red- 
start, and the female Willow- Wren, and almost every 
other note that it hears. 
