THE CHAFFINCH. 



131 



bread ; it is very easy to rear them and preserve them healthy till the time 

 of moulting, but then numbers perish, particularly if not quickly relieved 

 by being given meal-worms and ants' eggs, or any other animal food, as 

 bread boiled in or soaked in boiled milk. 



Chaffinches that have been reared with care become very familiar, and 

 sing at command, or when one approaches their cage in a friendly manner. 

 If they are wished to learn quickly and accurately, they should be kept in 

 an obscure corner of the room, and only hung up at the windows in May ; 

 this is the surest way to prevent their learning any thing imperfect. By 

 these means chaffinches that have been taken full grown have forgotten 

 their former song and adopted a better. The whole artifice consists in 

 keeping the bird in such retirement as will remove everything that might 

 distract it when listening to a fine songster, and take away the wish to sing 

 itself. 



There have been examples of chaffinches pairing with female canaries, 

 and it has been said with a female yellowhammer. The distinction between 

 wood and garden chaffinches is unfounded, at least as to species ; the eggs 

 of both are of the same whitish pink colour. 



DISEASES. The disorders to which the chaffinch is most subject are the 

 obstruction of the rump gland * and diarrhoea. To cure this an old nail or 

 a little saffron should be put in the water. 



When the scales on the feet become too large, the upper ones must be 

 cut skilfully with a sharp knife, or else the bird would either lose the use 

 of his limbs or become gouty ; but this operation must be performed with 

 great care. 



Blindness also is not uncommon, particularly where they are fed much 

 on hemp seed. This does not, however, injure their song, and as it comes 

 on gradually, it does not prevent their finding their food and hopping about 

 the perches. By means of proper care a chaffinch may be preserved twenty 

 years. 



MODE OF TAKING. With good baits the chaffinch may easily be drawn 

 within the area or decoy from Michaelmas to Martinmas, and in spring 

 throughout March. Those that remain the winter, or return early in the 

 year, may be taken in a net baited with oats. 



Birdcatchers use in spring lures and lime twigs, and the sport lasts as 

 long as the time of flight, which begins at daybreak and ends at nine o'clock. 

 These birds employ the rest of the day in seeking food in the fields, in 

 resting, and singing. In the same manner are taken linnets, goldfinches, 

 siskins, yellowhammers, and bullfinches. 



Some make use of the excessive jealousy of the males to procure those 

 whose song is very superior. As soon as a bird-catcher who likes this way 

 discovers a fine songster wild, he immediately seeks another male that is 

 in the habit of often repeating its natural cry, fink, fink, ties his wings, and 

 fastens to his tail a little forked stick, half a finger long, well covered with 

 birdlime ; thus prepared, he fastens him under the tree on which the one 

 he is watching is perched ; this no sooner sees and hears the false rival 



* The want of a bathing place in the narrow cages where these unhappy prisoners 

 are kept is the true cause of this disease. 



K2 



