THE DRAW -WATER 99 



placing the cage on a stout branch near the nest, and the 

 old birds will feed them. 



A few hours later you may move them up the whitethorn 

 decorated lane for a couple of hundred yards, and so on up 

 to half a mile, but no farther, in one day — that is a young 

 goldfinch's infant day's journey. So by degrees you decoy 

 the parents to your garden. When the parents get tired of 

 feeding your captives, make pills of eggs and flour, and give 

 them together with plantain-seeds and thistle-tops, and so 

 you shall educate them to sing when you blow your slender 

 fire with the bellows ; and, if you be a woman, destitute of 

 human lovers, you may teach the brown-billed bird to kiss 

 you ; but a man's kiss is preferable. 



Unless you wish him to sing another's song, for he is of 

 the mean tribe of plagiarists, keep him when young out of 

 hearing of other birds, as he, like many a human parrot, pre- 

 fers the songs of others to his own. But for any purpose 

 whatsoever, I do not think his company is worth his keep. 



