MODE OF TAKING.--Nothing is easier than to catch a nightingale in the season of pairing. If a little furrow, smooth at the bottom, is dug in a dark soil, and some meal worms or ants' eggs are thrown into it, he will immediately fly to these delicacies. By putting also in the same place limed twigs, or a small net which may be easily dropped, he will soon be caught; it is even sufficient to fix over the furrow a bit of wood supported by a stick, which will fall as soon as the bird perches upon it. He is so unsuspicious that he observes the snare being laid, and then foolishly falls into it, when the bird-catcher has moved only a few steps from it; he will even allow himself to be led to it when at a little distance, if in a gentle manner. A bird-catcher may thus, in a few hours, depopulate a whole district of these delightful songsters. If, however, this is feared, there is a means of baffling his intentions, by anticipating him, and catching the nightingale we wish to preserve in our neighbourhood, either by a limed twig or in a net, and letting him go again. This experiment will prevent his falling so readily into the snare in future. In the greater part of Germany, indeed, it is forbidden, under a very heavy penalty, to catch nightingales. Another mode of taking them is by nooses and springes, and suspending for a bait, instead of berries, live meal-worms; but there is one disadvantage attending it, while struggling the bird almost always injures his feet, especially in springes. ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--The first good quality of a nightingale is undoubtedly its fine voice, and notes which I shall endeavour to describe. The nightingale expresses his different emotions by suitable and particular tones. The most unmeaning cry when he is alone appears to be a simple whistle _fitt_, but if the syllable _crr_ is added, it is then the call of the male to the female. The sign of displeasure or fear is _fitt_ repeated rapidly and loudly before adding the terminating _crr_; whilst that of satisfaction and pleasure such, for example, as conjugal endearments, or on the occasion of finding a delicate morsel, is a deep _tack_, which may be imitated by smacking the tongue. In anger, jealousy, rivalry, or any extraordinary event, he utters hoarse disagreeable sounds, somewhat like a jay or a cat. Lastly, in the season of pairing, when the male and female entice and pursue each other, from the top of a tree to its base, and thence again to the top, a gentle subdued warbling is all that is heard.