DISEASES.--If it were generally true, that birds in a wild state are never ill, this species must be excepted; for, however strange it may appear, the young are subject to the small pox; they are attacked by it while in the nest, or even after they can fly. I have a young bird of this kind, which, at a time when this disease prevailed in my neighbourhood, took it; he recovered, however, tolerably well, but he entirely lost the tail-feathers, which were never afterwards renewed. Old ones are sometimes caught or killed whose feet and eyes are ulcerated, or have tumours on them; perhaps they may be only chilblains. Weavers' stoves appear to be particularly injurious to these birds; in two or three months their eyes swell, and the feathers fall off all round them; the beak is attacked with scurvy, which spreads to the feet, then all over the body; but they nevertheless continue to live from eight to ten years in these rooms. MODE OF TAKING.--This is very easy at their return in the spring. As soon as they appear in the hedges, where they soon discover themselves by the cry "_issri_," a little place near, where the earth is bare, must be found; after having placed limed twigs, and thrown among them earth or meal worms for a bait, the dunnock is gently driven towards them without alarming him; as soon as he perceives the worms he darts upon them and falls into the snare. In the autumn they may be caught in the area and with a noose; in winter in the white-throat's trap; but they resort in the greatest numbers to the water trap, not so much for the sake of bathing as to seek for dead insects or decayed roots. ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--However agreeable this bird may be in the room, from its good humour, agility, gaiety, and song, it does not deserve the name of winter nightingale, which it bears in some places; its song is too simple and short; it is a little couplet, composed of a strain of the lark and one of the wren. The sounds _tchondi, hondi, hondi_ are repeated frequently and for a long time, always descending a sixth, and gradually diminishing in power. This song is accompanied with an uninterrupted movement of the wings and tail, and lasts through the year, except at the moulting season. Some young ones, reared in confinement, will, if placed beside a fine singing bird, learn enough of its song to embellish their own. But, whatever may be asserted on the subject, they never succeed in imitating the nightingale. When the dunnock disputes with its fellow captives for a place or for food its anger evaporates in a song, like the crested lark and the wagtail. THE RED-BREAST. [Illustration] Motacilla rubecula, LINNÆUS; Le Rouge-gorge, BUFFON; Das Rothkelchen, BECHSTEIN.