OF SELBORNE. 227 



Sure there can be no doubt but that woodcocks and 

 fieldfares leave us in the spring, in order to cross the 

 seas, and to retire to some districts more suitable to the 

 purpose of breeding. That the former pair before they 

 retire, and that the hens are forward with egg, I myself, 

 when I was a sportsman, have often experienced. It 

 cannot indeed be denied but that now and then we hear 

 of a woodcock's nest, or young birds, discovered in 

 some part or other of this island : but then they are 



have little natural variety of song, are no less ready in confinement to 

 learn from other species, and become as much better songsters as the 

 nightingale degenerates, by borrowing from others. The bullfinch, whose 

 natural notes are weak, harsh, and insignificant, has a greater facility 

 than any other bird of learning human music. It is pretty evident that 

 the Germans, who bring vast numbers of them to London which they 

 have taught to pipe, must have instructed them more by whistling to 

 them, than by an organ ; and that their instructions have been accom- 

 panied by a motion of the head and body in accordance with the time ; 

 which habit the birds also acquire, and is no doubt of great use to them 

 in regulating their song. In the same manner, that wonderful bird, 

 Colonel O'Kelly's green parrot, which I had the satisfaction of seeing 

 and hearing (about the year 1799, if I recollect rightly), beat the time 

 always with its foot ; turning round upon the perch while singing, and 

 marking the time as it turned. This extraordinary creature sang per- 

 fectly about fifty different tunes of every kind God save the King, 

 solemn psalms, and humorous or low ballads, of which it articulated 

 every word as distinctly as a man could do, without ever making a mis- 

 take. If a bystander sang any part of the song, it would pause and take 

 up the song where the person had left off, without repeating what he had 

 said. When moulting and unwilling to sing, it would answer all solici- 

 tations by turning its back and repeatedly saying, " Poll's sick." I am 

 persuaded that its instructor had taught it to beat time. The canary- 

 bird, whose song, in its artificial state in Europe, is a compound of notes 

 acquired from other birds, is able to learn the song of the nightingale, 

 but not to execute it with the same power as the nightingale itself. I 

 have never heard one that sung it quite correctly, but I have heard it 

 approach near enough to prove that with more careful education it might 

 learn it right. Those who have taken the most pains about it have been 

 contented with placing, under nightingales, young canaries, as soon as 

 they could feed themselves ; but such will necessarily have learned part 

 at least of their parents' song. The linnet and linnet mule is said to be 

 able to come nearer the execution of the nightingale, when properly 

 instructed. The best way would be to use an experienced hen canary- 

 bird who will rear her young without the cock, and to take the cock 

 away before the young are hatched : or to set the canary-eggs under a 

 hen paired with a goldfinch, which, kept in a darkish situation, will pro- 



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