26 Birds I Have Kept. 



I bought him a wife one day, and turned the pair into a 

 large empty room we had at the top of the house. I scarcely 

 know whether Peter appreciated the lady's society as well as 

 he did that of his human friends, at all events he taught 

 her the words he knew, and she soon called "Peter", and 

 said ''Hip, hip, hurrah!" as well as he did. After a time 

 she made a nest among some boughs I had placed in the 

 room, and laid five eggs, upon which she sat devotedly for a 

 fortnight, but they came to nothing. Peter, poor fellow, got 

 into a habit of sitting on the window sill, looking out into 

 the garden to watch the Sparrows, that often peeped at him 

 through the window-panes, but the draught that came up 

 between the two sashes gave him cold, and he died. 



Since that melancholy event I have had many more Bull- 

 finches, but not one as nice as the two I have named; and 

 scarcely expect I ever shall, although Le houvreuil of the French, 

 der Gimpel of Grerman authors, Loxia pijrrhula of Linnoeus, is 

 always a charming bird, which it is quite a mistake to term 

 ''clumsy" as some writers have done; he is broad built for 

 his length, measuring six inches and three quarters from beak 

 to tail; the tail is two and a half inches long; the beak but 

 six lines, thick and black; the eye is chesnut; the feet and 

 legs black; the top of the head, a circle round the beak, and 

 the chin are a deep velvety black; the back of the neck, 

 back, and shoulders are bluish grey; the throat, breast, and 

 belly a lovely shade of reddish pink, and the rump pure 

 white; the wings and tail are black, shining with metallic 

 lustre, and the former are crossed about their middle by a 

 narrow band of grey. 



The female Bullfinch can be readily distinguished from her 

 mate, for what in him is red, is reddish grey in her; while 

 her back is brownish grey, and she is, moreover, perceptibly 

 smaller than he is. 



There is a variety about half as large again as the ordinary 

 Bullfinch, from which it difi'ers in nothing but size: these 



