Читать книгу Charles Peace, or The Adventures of a Notorious Burglar онлайн

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After the birdcatcher and Alf Purvis had taken up their position in the clump of foliage, they waited patiently for more than a quarter of an hour.

The adjacent trees and shrubs resounded with chirpings and carollings.

“I like to hear them twitter,” said the boy.

“It looks like business,” returned his companion. “Pretty—​aint it?”

“Oh, jolly, and no mistake. I wish I knew the business.”

The birds gathering courage began to flutter down upon the net, which soon swarmed with linnets, yellowhammers, and tit-larks.

“Pull the string, guv’nor,” said Alf.

“Wait a bit, youngster. I want some bullfinches. I can hear ’em piping all around. There’s lots on ’em about these thorn trees.”

The bullfinch, though it does not properly belong to what are known as singing birds or birds of flight, as it does not often move farther than from hedge to hedge, yet invariably sells well on account of its learning to whistle tunes, and sometimes flies over the fields where the nets are laid, the birdcatchers have often a call-bird to ensnare it, though most of them can imitate its call with their mouths.