EUROPEAN FINCHES. 57 



winter, during the most dreary part of the year, 

 and when other birds are in general silent, they 

 will solace and delight us with their animated 

 and cheerful song. They are social and familiar, 

 and capable of forming strong attachments to 

 those who feed them ; they will know the voice 

 of their master or mistress; can be taught to sing 

 sitting upon the finger, and come and go at com- 

 mand. The following account of some of those 

 birds, which were exhibited in London some 

 years ago, will show that they are capable of 

 doing more wonderful things than has yet been 

 'mentioned, with which, (as 1 shall speak largely 

 in a future part of this work, of the breeding, 

 treatment of the young, diseases, &c. of this 

 delightful bird,) I shall at present conclude. 



In 1820, a Frenchman exhibited four-and- 

 twenty Canary birds in London, many of which, 

 he said, were from eighteen to twenty-five years 

 of age. Some of these balanced themselves with 

 their head downwards and tail in the air ; one of 

 them, taking a slender stick in his claws, passed 

 its head between its legs, and suffered itself to be 

 turned round as if in the act of being roasted ; 

 another balanced itself, and was slung backwards 

 and forwards, as on a kind of slack rope; a third 

 was dressed in military uniform, having a cap on 



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