iiiKOi. 281 



lliey ily, <ire always kept open ; they are not less remarkable 

 for their short slender I'eet, whieh searcely are able to support 

 the weight of their bodies ; their wings are of immoderate extent 

 for their bulk ; their plumage is glossed with a rich purple ; and 



fond of sinpiicr, to instruct them, and serve as music masters. The same 

 thing should be done with the young- canaries. 



It is pretended, tliat tliose bastard birds which come from the mixture of 

 canaries with sLskins, goldfinches, &c. are not sterile mules, but fertile 

 mongrels, which can unite and produce not only with their paternal and 

 maternal races, but also with each other, and give birth to fruitful indivi 

 duals, the varieties of wliich may also mingle and be perpetuated. M. VieiU 

 h)t tried experiments in this way, and used every possible means, for more 

 tlian twenty yeiirs, without success. He also consulted in Paris a great 

 number of amateurs, and of bird-dealers, who might be relied on, who sell 

 every year a great number of mules from the goldfinch and hen canary, 

 either born in Paris, or brought from Amiens, where the handsomest are 

 bred ; and all certified that these mules were unfruitful, and that they 

 never knew an example of the contrary, in spite of the reiterated attempts 

 whicli they had made every year, but to no purpose, to produce one. The 

 male mule will, it is true, couple with the hen canary, and vice versa, and 

 also bestow all the necessary attentions ; but nothing but barren eggs is the 

 consequence. The result is similar from the junction of the mules them, 

 selves, and it is the same witli those which proceed from the linnet, the sis- 

 kin, the greenfinch, and the bullfinch, and the same remark may be applied 

 to birds of every other order, genus, and species. It is the same with the 

 mules of the white or collared turtle dove and the common species, with 

 those of tlie cock pheasant and the common hen, the duck of India and our 

 domestic breed. 



Of the other finches, we shall here notice the Chaflinch and the Mountain 

 finch. 



The Chaffinch. — The bill is of a pale blue, tipped with black ; eyes hazel ; 

 the forehead black ; the cro«ai of the head, and the hinder part and sides o^ 

 the neck, are of a bluish ash-colour j sides of the head, throat, fore-part ol 

 the neck, and the breast, are of a vinaceous red ; belly, thighs, and vent 

 wliite, sliglitly tinged with red ; the back is of a reddish brown, changing to 

 green on the rump ; both the greater and lesser wing-coverts are tipped 

 with white, forming two pretty large bars across the wing ; the bastard 

 wing and quill feathers are black, edged with yellow ; the tail, which is a 

 little forked, is black, the outermost feather edged with white ; the legs are 

 brown. Tlie female wants the red upon the breast ; her plumage in gene- 

 ral is not so vivid, and iuclines to green; in other respects it is not much 

 unlike that of the male. 



The Mountain-finch or Brambling. — Is a native of northern climates, 

 where it spreads into various parts of Europe : it arrives in this country in 

 the latter end of summer, and is the most common in the mountainous parts 

 of our island. Vast flocks of them sometimes come together ; they fly very 

 close, aud on that account great numbers of them are frequently killed at 

 one shot. The length of this bird is somewhat above six inches. Bill yel. 

 low at the tip ; eyes hazel ; the fealhers im the head, neck, aud back, are 



