GOLDFINCH. 491 



many are known ; and this distinction has received the sanc- 

 tion, by adoption, of Baron Cuvier, and several other natu- 

 ralists. These birds belong to M. Temininck''s third section 

 of the Finches, Gros-hec, distinguished by the term Longi- 

 cones. 



Gay plumage, lively habits, an agreeable form and song, 

 with a disposition to become attached to those who feed 

 them, are such strong recommendations, that the Goldfinch 

 has been, and will probably long continue to be, one of the 

 most general cage favourites. So well also do the birds of 

 this species bear confinement, that they have been known to 

 live ten years in captivity, continuing in song the greater 

 part of each year. This tendency to sing and call make 

 them valuable as brace birds, decoy birds, and call birds, to 

 be used by the bird-catcher with his ground nets ; while the 

 facility with which others are captured, the numbers to be 

 obtained, and the constant demand for them by the public, 

 render the Goldfinch one of the most important species in- 

 cluded within the bird-dealer's traffic. 



Goldfinches, and the small Finches generally, are also fa- 

 vourites on another account : they are taught, without much 

 difficulty, to perform a variety of amusing tricks, such as to 

 draw up Avater for themselves by a small thimble-sized bucket, 

 or to raise the lid of a small box to obtain the seed within. 

 Mr. Syme, in his History of British Song Birds, Avhen speak- 

 ing of the Sieur Roman, who some years since exhibited 

 Goldfinches, Linnets, and Canaries, wonderfully trained, 

 relates, that one appeared dead, and was held up by the tail 

 or claw, without exhibiting any signs of life ; a second stood 

 on its head with its claws in the air ; a third imitated a 

 Dutch milk-maid 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 senti- 

 nel ; and the sixth acted as a cannoneer, with a cap on its 



