578 FRLNGILLID^E. 



become mere chatterers, which would be doubly vexatious 

 after having bestowed trouble in -teaching them. Different 

 degrees of capacity are shown here, as well as in other 

 animals : one young Bullfinch learns with ease and quick- 

 ness ; another with difficulty, and slowly ; the former 

 will repeat, without hesitation, several parts of a song ; 

 the latter will hardly be able to whistle one part, after 

 nine months 1 uninterrupted teaching : but it has been 

 remarked that those birds which learn with most difficulty, 

 remember the songs which they have once been well learned, 

 better and longer, and rarely forget them, even when 

 moulting. The instrument used is a bird-organ, or a fla- 

 geolet, but generally the former. Many birds, when 

 young, will learn some strains of airs whistled or played 

 to them regularly every day; but it is only those whose 

 memory is capable of retaining them that will abandon 

 their natural song, and adopt fluently, and repeat without 

 hesitation, the air that has been taught them. Thus a 

 young Goldfinch learns, it is true, some part of the 

 melody played to a Bullfinch ; but it will never be able to 

 render it as perfectly as this bird : this difference is riot 

 caused by the greater or less flexibility of the organ, but 

 rather by the superiority of memory in the one species 

 over that of the other. Numbers of Bullfinches, which 

 have been taught in the manner described, are brought 

 from Germany to London every spring, and are frequently 

 advertised for sale in the London newspapers : the price, 

 which is sometimes considerable, depends on the powers 

 and proficiency of the performer." 



The Bullfinch, as before observed, is common in Eng- 

 land, and Mr. William Thompson writes me word that it 

 is not uncommon in certain localities in Ireland. Accord- 

 ing to Sir William Jardine and Mr. Macgillivray, it is 



