218 



PIPING BULLFINCPIES. 



two thousand, which they carried all the way in cages on their 

 backs, and made a good livelihood by selling the best at five 

 shillings a-piece. Since then the trade has, we have reason to 

 believe, still further increased. 



Though not very hardy, Canaries might possibly be natura- 

 lised in our country, by putting their eggs in the nests of Spar- 

 rows, Chaffinches, or other similar birds. The experiment has 

 been partially tried in Berkshire, where a person for years kept 

 them in an exposed aviary out of doors, where they seemed to 

 suffer no inconvenience from the severest weather. 



But this singing-bird trade is not confined altogether to Can- 

 ary birds ; Piping Bullfinches, so called from being taught to 

 pipe different tunes, forming a considerable branch of it. In 



the month of June the 

 young ones, which are 

 sought for in the nests 

 of wild birds, are taken 

 when about ten days old, 

 and brought up by a per- 

 son who, by care and 

 attention, so completely 

 tames them that they 

 become perfectly docile 

 and obedient. At the 

 expiration of about a 

 couple of months they first begin to whistle, from which time 

 their education begins ; and no school can be more diligently 

 superintended by its master, and no scholars more effectually 

 trained to their own calling, *than a seminary of Bullfinches. 

 They are formed first into classes of about six in each and 

 after having been kept a longer time than usual without 

 food, and confined in a dark room, the tune they are to learn 

 is played over and over again on a little instrument called a 

 bird-organ, the notes of which resemble as nearly as possible 

 those of the Bullfinch. For a time, perhaps, the moping birds 

 will sit in silence, not knowing what to make of these proceed- 

 ings, but after a while they will one by one begin to imitate 

 the notes they hear. As soon as they do this, light is admitted 



The Bullfinch. 



