22 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



with his bill and pulls at it, putting his foot on 

 the string as he hauls it in, until he has got 

 the food or water vessel up to the hole through 

 which he reaches it. When he has had enough 

 he lets go the string, and the bucket drops, or 

 the truck runs back, by its own weight. 



As a rule he has to learn this trick by degrees ; 

 the seed and water vessels are at first fastened 

 close up to the cage, and then the string is 

 lengthened a little, so that he has to give a 

 peck at it. When he has learnt to put his 

 foot on the string it can be lengthened by 

 degrees, till he has to pull in several feet of it 

 to get what he wants. This is, I think, rather 

 too bad, as it is not fair to sentence the poor 

 little fellow to continual hard labour ; and it 

 would be better to give him canary-seed and 

 water in the cage, and confine his pulling to 

 a truck of hempseed, or a bunch of green food, 

 so that he would only have to work for these 

 extras. The goldfinch will also learn this 

 trick, but some birds never understand it ; 

 for instance the canary, who cannot be got 

 to see that he must keep on pulling and hold- 

 ing the string with his foot as he goes on. 

 Some redpolls, too, are cleverer than others ; 



