Food.—When wild nightingales feed on insects, especially little green caterpillars, of which they clear the bushes and trees, small butterflies, flies, and beetles, and the grubs of insects hid among moss or in the earth, which are discovered by turning it up. At their departure, towards the end of summer, they also eat elderberries and currants.
In confinement, meal worms and fresh ants’ eggs are the first things which should be offered to birds which are just caught; in place of these, when it is not possible to procure them, some persons prepare a mixture of hard eggs, ox heart, and white bread, some mouthfuls of which they force the birds to swallow, and then throw some meal worms on the rest, to induce the nightingale to eat it; but this artificial food is so unfit for these birds, especially at first, that it kills the greater number. They may also be injured by forcibly opening their delicate beak. When ants' eggs cannot be procured, it is better to set the birds at liberty than thus to sacrifice them. Their best food in summer is ants’ eggs, to which are daily added two or three meal worms[75]; when none of the former remain fresh they must be supplied by dried or rather roasted ox heart and raw carrot, both grated, and then mixed with dried ants’ eggs[76]. The carrot, which may be preserved fresh in sand in the cellar, prevents heat in the stomach and bowels; a little lean beef or mutton minced small may also be used sometimes; after different trials, it is in this way I feed my nightingales. The cheapest food is very ripe elderberries, dried and mixed with ants’ eggs, in the same way as the carrots and white bread.
Some bird-fanciers, in winter, bake a little loaf made of the flour of peas and eggs, which they grate, moisten, and then mix with dried ants’ eggs; others, who would still be more economical, pound poppy-seeds in a mortar to express the oil, and then mix them with the crumb of white bread; when accustomed to it the birds seem very fond of it, but a proof that it does not agree with them is that they soon fall into a decline and die. This plan has lately been introduced into Thuringia; but knowing, as I do from experience, that the stomach of the nightingale is not formed to digest such food, since he is not graminivorous, I take care never to administer it; and I think I ought to warn others against it. The best will always be the simplest, and that which is most conformable to nature. Those who adopt that which I have mentioned will have the satisfaction of finding their nightingales healthy, cheerful, active, and good singers.
I have already said that I have tried letting them run about the room, feeding them upon the common universal paste; but this food is not sufficiently nutritious for them: on this diet they can hardly pass six months without falling into a decline, and they would inevitably perish if they were not speedily restored to one which is fitter for them. They require fresh water every day, as well for bathing as drinking; they habitually bathe, when caged, after singing. They have also been observed to do so the first thing in the evening, when the candles were lighted.
Breeding.—Each nightingale has his little district; and if in the pairing season several males are found together, very angry battles take place, which end in the flight of the weakest. The commonest quarrels of this kind are between fathers and sons. The latter, having been born in the place, determine to fix themselves in it; all feeling of relationship is then extinguished, and they are strangers; the relations of father and son, those sweet ties, hitherto so close, are suddenly broken, never more to be felt.
The nest is built in a grove or orchard, among a heap of branches, or on a thorn bush, or the trunk of a tree surrounded by briars; or even on the ground when it may be hid by tall grass or thick bushes. Its form is simple and inartificial, on the outside dry leaves, on the inside hay, fine roots, with the hair of animals, is all the apparatus. The female lays from four to six eggs, of a brownish green, on which she sits a fortnight. The young are fed with small caterpillars and butterflies. As the low position of the nest exposes them to become the prey of carnivorous quadrupeds, they soon quit it, even before they can fly. Their plumage before moulting has no resemblance to that of the old birds except the red of the tail; the upper part of the body is of a reddish grey, spotted with yellowish white on the head and coverts of the wings; the under part is of a rusty yellow, spotted on the breast with dark brown; but after moulting the resemblance is so perfect that they can hardly be distinguished. If, therefore, any of these birds are caught towards the end of summer, they are carefully examined on the back of the head, round the eyes, and under the beak and neck, for, provided there remains in these places a small feather, or mere yellow point, it is sufficient to ascertain that they are young. As these are the only means of judging, if no marks appear, it is necessary to wait for a few days till the bird begins to sing. This, however, is not a sure sign, as the young females sing as well as the males, till the month of April, though in a weaker and more unconnected way, and without so visibly swelling their throats: it is by these nice observations that connoisseurs succeed in distinguishing them. It may also be remarked, as a help to those who wish to rear nightingales, that, when in the nest, those which are marked with white, and especially those which have a white throat, are males; the reddest and brownest being always females. The young, when taken, are fed with ants’ eggs mixed with white bread, grated and moistened. The males begin to warble even before their tails are quite grown: if the father and mother are taken at the same time as the young ones, they will, when caged, continue to feed them as before. It is said that nightingales sometimes build in the bird room; this, however, can only succeed by giving up to a tame healthy pair a whole room, in which a sort of grove should be formed of branches.
Diseases.—In general moulting amounts to a disease among nightingales: at this critical time they require a more succulent diet, and sometimes a spider by way of purgative. If their stomach is disordered they puff up their feathers, half shut their eyes, and remain for hours with their head under their wing. They are relieved and cured by ants’ eggs, some spiders, and by giving them occasionally water impregnated with saffron till it is of an orange colour, to drink.
As to those diseases which they have in common with other birds, they are treated according to the directions given in the Introduction. It is especially necessary, every three months, carefully to remove the large scales from their legs and toes. A nightingale may be kept in confinement fifteen years; whilst in a wild state they are never observed to exist so long in the same spot, which seems to prove that they do not attain so great an age when exposed to all sorts of accidents, both from birds of prey and bird-catchers. I have an instance of a nightingale which has lived twenty-five years in confinement. When they have reached six years they begin to sing less frequently and long, with less brilliancy and ornament; it is then better to set them at liberty in the month of May. The open air often invigorates them so much that they regain their song in all its force and beauty.
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.