BIRDS. 273 



the maL will take his turn in building the nest, sitting upon the 

 eggs, and feeding the young. They are generally two or three 

 days in building their nests ; the hen commonly lays five eggs ; 

 and in the space of fourteen days the young will he excluded. 

 So prolific are these birds sometimes, that the female will be 

 ready to hatch a second brood before the first are able to quit 

 the nest. On these occasions she leaves the nest and the young, 

 to provide herself with another to lay her new brood in. In the 

 mean time the male, more faithful to the duties of bis trust, 

 breeds up the young left behind, and fits them for a state of in- 

 dependence. 



When the young ones are excluded, the old ones should be 

 supplied with a sufficiency of soft food every day, likewise with 

 fresh greens, such as cabbage, lettuce, and chick-weed ; in June, 

 shepherd's purse ; and in July and August, plantain. They are 

 never to have groundsel after the young are excluded. With 

 these different delicacies the old ones will take particular care to 

 feed and bring up their young ; but it is usual when they can 

 feed themselves, to be taken from the nest and put into cages. 

 Their meat then is the yolk of an egg boiled hard, with an equal 

 quantity of fine bread, and a little scalded rape-seed : this must 

 be bruised till it becomes fine, and then it may be mixed with a 

 little maw-seed ; after which blend all together ; which is to be 

 supplied them fresh every day. 



The Canary-bird, by being kept in company with the linnet 

 or the gold-finch, pairs and produces a mixed breed more like 

 the Canary-bird, and resembling it chiefly in its song. In- 

 deed, all this tribe with strong bills and piercing notes, and 

 feeding upon grain, have the most strong similitude to each 

 other, and may justly be supposed, as Mr BufTon imagines, to 

 come from the same original. They all breed about the same 

 time ; they frequent the same vegetables ; they build in the 

 same hedges and trees ; and are brought up for the cage with 

 the same food and precautions. The linnet, the bulfinch, and 

 the gold-finch, when we know the history of the Canary-bird, 

 have scarcely any peculiarities that can attract our curiosity 

 or require our care. The only art necessary with all those that 

 have no very fine note, is to breed them up under some more 

 pleasing harmonist The gold-finch learns a fine song from the 



