566 FRINGILLID^. 



which many are known ; and this distinction has received 

 the sanction, by adoption, of Baron Cuvier, and several 

 other naturalists. These birds belong to M. Temminck's 

 third section of the Finches, Gros-bec, distinguished by the 

 term Longicones* 



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 included within the bird-dealer's traffic. 



Goldfinches, and the small Finches generally, are also 

 favourites on another account : they are taught, without 

 much difficulty, to perform a variety of amusing tricks, 

 such as to draw up water 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, when speaking 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 sentinel ; and the sixth 



