Dr. Heineken on Fringilla Canaria, 5?c. 77 



melody made upon the traveller, 1 have very little doubt about its iden- 

 tity with our Tinto negro, and consequently with the European Black- 

 cap ; for of course the assertion that he knew it not, even of a Humboldt, 

 when following the confession that he " had never seen it near," is 

 worth nothing. Here it is most easily tamed, and becomes more docile 

 than any other cage-bird ; but seldom attains to the melody which it 

 pours out when at large, and is always unhealthy in confinement. The 

 latter arises from the custom of feeding it (an insectivorous bird) entirely 

 on fruit, and bread and milk; and it is for this matter o'fect reason, I 

 fear, and not the more elevated one of " liberty being sacred to his soul !" 

 (" Personal Narrative") that it dies at Teneriffe. 



The Woodcock, fScolopax rusticola, Linn.,) which is admitted by all 

 not even to be a variety of the European species, is permanent, and 

 breeds here ; and had not the latter fact, like that of the variety of the 

 Tinto negro, been occasionally called in question, I should have rested 

 satisfied with its notoriety. Two years ago I saw a bird just fledged, which 

 I was told had been taken from a Woodcock's nest. It answered to all 

 the essential characters of the species, but as I never before saw so young 

 a bird of any of the genus, and as the only reason given for the identity 

 of the nest was simply " because it was so," the valeat quantum of this 

 evidence will not, perhaps, amount to much, although it more than sa- 

 tisfied me. Woodcocks are brought about for sale as commonly in July 

 as in December.* There is no sudden increase or decrease in their num- 

 bers. Forty years ago they were unknown here. One was then acci- 

 dentally met with in the South, and afterwards abundance in the North 

 of the island, where they were for many years plentiful, and since that 

 time have never disappeared. But the best evidence is that of an old 

 sportsman, who has in several instances found nests with three eggs (the 



* There are no g^me laws. All descriptions of animals not domesticated 

 are looked upon by the cultivators as " fruges consumere nati," and knocked 

 on the head in all ways, and at all seasons, without ceremony : the wonder 

 therefore is, not that we have so few, but that any should remain in such a 

 purgatory. Nightingales were attempted to be introduced some thirty years 

 ago, and heavenly they would have been in such a climate : it is said not to 

 have suited them, but I shrewdly suspect thej' were all made into pies. 



