food may be procured. When kept in a cage, the ordinary Chaffinch cage is preferable to a bell-shaped one, as they are not fond of hopping upwards. If they run freely about the chamber, they are supplied either with a recess or a dwarf fir to roost. From their habit of perching high, they select the top branch whilst singing as well as sleeping.

FOOD. They feed upon all kinds of seeds, groundsel, succory, salad, cabbage, rape, Canary, thistle, and alder seed: also linseed, dodder grass, &c. In the cage it must be fed upon poppy seed and hemp seed, the first being given as its usual food. If allowed to run freely about, it will accustom itself to the second description of universal food. I possess one which has been used to take all kinds of green food and vegetables that come to table, and even to eat meat, although when at liberty an insect of any description is disagreeable to it. He may also have given to him all sorts of green things, such as salad, cabbage, lettuce, and water-cresses. They eat voraciously, and therefore, when allowed to run about in the chamber, they perch upon the trough, and chase away, with a threatening gesture, every bird that approaches; whereas they will feed with other birds that have any kind of resemblance to them, at least with respect to the character of their food, such as Canary birds, Siskins, and particularly the Lesser Redpole, whether male or female.

BREEDING.-Goldfinches prefer building in gardens and in large orchards. In skilfulness and neatness of structure their nest stands next to that of the Chaffinch; externally it is formed of delicate mosses, lichens, the delicate fibres of roots, neatly interwoven, and inside lined with wool, hair, and thistle down. It is hemispherical. The female lays rarely more than once a-year (consequently these birds never greatly increase), and then from four to six eggs, which upon a pale sea-green ground are marked with pale red spots and dots, and deep red stripes. The young are fed from the crop.

These, before they first moult, are grey upon the head, and are called Grey Heads, or "Grey Pates," by bird-catchers. If males only are wished to be removed from the nest, those must be left behind which have a narrow whitish ring at the base of the beak. They can be reared upon poppy seeds and roll steeped in milk or water. They have greater facility in imitating the song of the Canary than that of any other bird; and with this bird they will produce fertile hybrids. To effect this a male Goldfinch is placed with one or two hen Canaries, and they very readily pair. The birds which spring from this union are not only beautiful in colour and plumage-often yellow, with the head, wings, and tail of the Goldfinch-but they will be found to excel in the sweetness and variety of their song.

MALADIES.-They are very subject to epilepsy. If they happen to have bad and swollen eyes, they should be anointed with fresh butter. Heaviness and greediness, occasioned by feeding too exclusively upon hemp seed, may be removed by giving them in lieu of it soaked salad and thistle seeds. It contributes much to their health if occasionally supplied with the head of the thistle.

In old age they become blind, and they then lose the beautiful red and yellow colours of the head and wings.

Although frequently subject to sickness, there are instances of their having lived to the age of sixteen and even twentyfour years.

CAPTURE. In spring they are caught by means of a decoybird upon call-bushes. They will also visit the fowling-floor if strewed with bundles of thistles; but are very difficult to capture, being extremely cautious of approaching nets and limed rods. In winter several bundles of thistles are tied together, and springes are placed about them, in which they are caught; in autumn and spring limed rods are used. The capture is effected with greater certainty, if a bundle of

thistles be fastened to a tree, and this be covered with limed twigs.

Its call is ziflit or sticklit; and the latter is also its Bohemian name.

COMMENDATORY QUALITIES.-The Goldfinch is a beautiful and animated bird, whose body is in incessant motion-now moving to the right and now to the left. Its song is shrill, agreeable, and heard during all seasons, excepting only at the period of moulting. It contains, besides, many warbling and twittering notes, on which it dwells more or less, and the oftener the syllable fink is repeated the more it is admired. Some utter these notes only once or twice in their song, and others four or five times in succession. They also repeat airs, and the songs of other birds, but with difficulty, for they have not the same capacity as Linnets and Canaries for these acquisitions.

Their tameness is extraordinary, for they will even learn to fire small cannons and imitate death. They may be taught to draw up their food and water in a little bucket. The apparatus consists of two lines of broad soft leather in which there are four holes, through which their feet and wings are passed, and the ends are held together beneath the belly by a ring, to which is attached a delicate chain that supports the buckets containing the food and drink. A bird, thus equipped, will then draw up the chain by its beak, retaining the draw-up links by its feet, and thus succeeds in obtaining what it wishes. Another mode is sometimes adopted, in which he is fastened, by means of a chain, to the perch upon which he sits, and two vessels are made to pass over a pulley, so that as one ascends the other descends, thus obtaining his food and water in turns.

I have also seen Goldfinches and Siskins placed in different cages, a little bell being hung to the trough, against which they struck with their beak when eating. These bells were

arranged harmoniously, and an agreeable kind of music was thus produced. But indeed such trifling soon becomes irksome.

This bird is taught to go and come at command much sooner than the Linnet, though the latter learns quite as soon to build in the cage. To effect this, a Goldfinch must

be taken in the winter, and one not too much accustomed to the warmth of the chamber, and, in its cage, placed every day at the window, or on the sill, or upon a board, where it cannot be reached by mice, and near the cage some hemp seed must be strewn, with a little bunch of thistle heads, the seeds of which are to be scattered among the hemp. Soon afterwards other Goldfinches, attracted by the call of the one in the cage, will fly thither to seek this food. When this is the case, it is no longer necessary to hang the decoy-bird in the cage at the window, which also would be eventually injured by the cold; and it is then only hung within, a trap-cage being placed outside, not for the purpose of immediately catching these birds, but to check the visits of the Sparrows, and prevent them eating the seed. The fall of this trap-cage must be connected, by means of a string passed through a hole in the window, with the inside, so that it may be caused to fall at pleasure. The Goldfinches should be allowed to visit it without disturbance until the snow begins to melt, and before flying off to some other locality they are captured, tamed in a bird-cage, and subsequently accustomed to fly about a room. The cage must be so constructed that the door will close when it is required, by means of some spring that the bird can act upon without being scared. A bird thus trained may safely be allowed its liberty at the time it moults in August. It is pretty certain to return again in December, when the snow falls, and will sing far better than if it had been kept in confinement. Its cage ought to be kept constantly at the window, supplied with food, that it may find what it wants when it returns. But

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it rarely presents itself before the commencement of winter ; and then, in order to recapture it, the cage must be placed so that it will close when the bird enters. But the most certain method is to attract it by a call-bird. When recaptured, it may be kept shut up till its season of liberty again arrives.

Chaffinches, Greenfinches, and Tits, may be taught to go and return in a similar manner; and it has been found that birds so trained sing more sweetly than when constantly confined.

Mr. Syme, in his excellent treatise on British Song Birds, gives the following amusing particulars respecting this species:-"The Goldfinch is easily tamed and easily taught, and its capability of learning the notes of other birds is well known; but the tricks it may be taught to perform are truly astonishing. A few years ago, the Sieur Roman exhibited his birds, which were Goldfinches, Linnets, and Canaries. One appeared dead, and was held up by the tail or claws without exhibiting any signs of life; a second stood on its head with its claws in the air; a third imitated a Dutch milkmaid going to market with pails on its shoulders; a fourth mimicked a Venetian girl looking out at a window; a fifth appeared as a soldier, and mounted guard as a sentinel; and the sixth acted as cannoneer, with a cap on its head, a firelock on its shoulder, and a match in its claws, and discharged a small cannon. The same bird also acted as if it had been wounded. It was wheeled in a barrow, to convey it, as it were, to the hospital; after which it flew away before the company. The seventh turned a kind of windmill; and the last bird stood in the midst of some fireworks, which were discharged all round it, and this without exhibiting the least symptom of fear."

The Goldfinch is very generally distributed, occurring in