264 BRITISH BIRDS. 



freely with the Siskin and Goldfinch, particularly 

 the former, as has been already observed; it like- 

 wise proves prolific with the Linnet, but not so 

 readily : and admits also the Chaffinch, Yellow 

 Bunting, and even the Sparrow, though with still 

 more difficulty. In all these instances, excepting 

 the first, the pairing succeeds best when the fe- 

 male Canary is introduced to the male of the 

 opposite species. According to Buffon, the Sis- 

 kin is the only bird of which the male and female 

 propagate equally with those of the male or fe- 

 male Canaries. 



This author, in his History of Birds, has given 

 a curious account of the various methods used in 

 rearing these little songsters, to which the reader 

 is referred. We have thought it necessary to sav 

 so much of a bird, which, though neither of Bri- 

 tish origin, nor a voluntary visitor, must yet be 

 considered as ours by adoption.* 



* The importation of Canaries forms a small article of commerce ; 

 great numbers are every year imported from Tyrol ; four Tyrolese 

 usually bring over to England about sixteen hundred of these birds; 

 and though they carry them on their backs one thousand miles, and 

 pay twenty pounds duty for such a number, they are enabled to sell 

 them at five shillings a-piece. Phil. Trans., vol. 62. 



