A MtTSlCAL DUCK. 193 



and no scholars more eflfectually trained to their own calling, 

 than a seminary of bullfinches. As a general rule tliey are 

 formed into classes of about six in each, and kept in a dark room, 

 where food and music are administered at the same time, so that 

 when the meal is .ended if the birds feel inclined to tune up, they 

 arc naturally inclined to copy the rounds which are so familiar 

 to them. As soon as they begin to imitate a few notes the light 

 is admitted into tlie room, which still farther exhilarates their 

 spirits, and inclines them to sing. In some establishments the 

 starving system is adopted and the birds are not allowed food 

 or light until they sing. When they have been under this 

 course of instruction in classes for some time, they are commit- 

 ted singly to the care of boys whose sole business is to go on 

 with their education. Each boy assiduously plays his organ* 

 from morning till night for the instruction of the bird committed 

 to his care, while the class teacher goes his regular rounds, 

 superintending the progress of his feathered pupils, and scold- 

 ing or rewarding them in a manner which they perfectly under- 

 stand, and strictly in accordance with the attention or the dis- 

 regard they have shown to the instructions of the monitor. 

 This round of teaching goes on unintermitiingly for no less a 

 period than nine months, by which time the bird has acquired 

 firmness, and is less likely to forget or spoil the air by leaving 

 out passages, or giving them in the wrong place. At the time 

 of molting the best instructed birds are liable to lose the recol- 

 lection of their tunes, and therefore require to have them fre- 

 quently reepated at that time, otherwise all the previous labor 

 will have been thrown away." 



The goldfinch is a handsome, lively bird, uttering his sonor- 

 ous song at all periods except when molting. It consists, in 

 addition to several intricate and twittering notes, of certain 

 tones which resemble those of the harp, and it is valued in pro- 

 portion to the number of times the syllable ^^ fink " recurs. The 

 goldfinch may also be taught to whistle certain airs and to re- 

 peat the song of other birds, though in this respect it is not so 

 docile as the canary. 



Ducks are not commonly numbered among song birds, but a 

 French paper. La France Chorale, gravely relates that an old 

 trumpeter living in the department of the Meuse, knowing that 

 it was possible to teach speech and music to parrots, starlings, 

 blackbirds, magpies, and others of the feathered tribe, operated 

 lately on a duck in his court. He obtained his pupil when a 

 duckling, adopting it, and set about its education. In a 



"■A small barrel organ , called a bird or^an, made for this purpose. 



