1 64 Bird-keeping. 



flax-seed, and nettle-seed, and no doubt are partially 

 insectivorous. In confinement theyshould be fed chiefly 

 on canary and bird-turnip ; hemp-seed must be given 

 very sparingly, as a luxury and a reward only : it has 

 a most injurious effect upon them, causing blindness, 

 loss of feathers, blackness of plumage, etc. Two young 

 Bullfinches which I once reared from the nest were 

 given away as soon as they were full grown, and were 

 brought back to me in the course of a few weeks, the 

 most deplorable little objects possible to conceive: 

 they had a few feathers on their heads, and two long 

 tail-feathers, and their little red bodies were perfectly 

 bare of plumage. They had been fed entirely upon 

 hemp-seed. A course of warm baths and plenty of 

 green food restored them to health and beauty c They 

 require lettuce, chickweed, and groundsel, and are fond 

 of watercresses, and must have no sweets or injurious 

 delicacies. When moulting, they may have a clove 

 or a rusty nail in the drinking-water, egg and bread 

 crumbs, or a few ants' eggs ; when over-fat, scalded 

 rape-seed and green food : a little fruit or berries may 

 be given occasionally. They are very fond of bathing. 

 There are some foreign Bullfinches occasionally 

 brought to England : the AMERICAN PURPLE BULL- 

 FINCH (Fringilla purpurea\ the CARMINE BULL- 

 FINCH (Fringilla or Erythrothorax erythinid), inhabit- 

 ing Northern Europe and Asia, and the SIBERIAN 

 BULLFINCH (Uragus Sibericus\ are all beautiful birds, 



