188 BRITISH LAND BIRDS. 



appeared as soldier on guard, a fifth acted as can- 

 noneer, and discharged a small cannon, and the 

 same bird acted as if it had been wounded, was 

 wheeled off in a barrow, and afterwards flew away 

 before the company ; a sixth turned a kind of wind- 

 mill ; and the last bird stood in the midst of some 

 fireworks, which were discharged all around it, 

 without seeming the least afraid. 



The goldfinch is long-lived, and one is known 

 to have lived twenty-three years in confinement. 



