"38 Song Birds. 



is no bird I have known so often return to the 

 cage. 



These birds are certainly most elegant little crea- 

 tures, and I should be afraid to say how many hours 

 daily they would appear quite happy in a minute 

 attendance to their toilette duties ; they are also 

 some of the most affectionate as well as the 

 liveliest and prettiest of all the birds I know, and 

 their great charm is, that like Bullfinches they are 

 personal in their devotion ; they will be on the most 

 familiar terms with their own mistress, hopping about 

 on her hand, peeping between her fingers, and nibbling 

 at her pen ; and yet if another person enters, darting 

 up to the curtain pole, or perching on a picture frame, 

 and by no means affable. 



It is rather rare that a pair of Goldfinches should 

 build in confinement ; the best chance for their doing 

 so is when they are flying about a room fitted up 

 with a sort of thick hedge of pine branches cut in 

 February so as to keep their leaves, or with a thick 

 "bush or two of gorse fastened securely in one comer 

 of the room at a good height from the floor. 



I own I suspect that some of my Goldfinches once 

 were wild ; but if so they have not much to complain 

 of now, for they look very happy in their russet 

 dress, shading down to white, and their black feathers 

 with the clear white spangles and brilliant crimson 

 heads. There they sit on the top of the fir-tree 



