5



that England is not the climate to suit this bird, for we cannot

give him open-air exercise without wet: still, I may be mistaken,

I am sure I hope so.


II.—THE BULLFINCH.


Pyrrhula eitropcm, Vieill.


By Albert Rettich.


The song of the wild or untutored Bullfinch is certainly

not a musical triumph, though it is very soft, without unpleasant

or shrill sounds. Nor is the bird capable of mocking other species.

Nevertheless, when properly trained, the Bullfinch excels them

all in what many think a far more desirable and wonderful

accomplishment, 'that is, in his remarkable aptitude for learning

whistling as performed by human lips, or, as it is termed,

piping.


The natural call-note of the Bullfinch is in itself a piping

sound; simple, short, flute-like, and easily imitated by the human

lips ; this simple call the bird can modulate at will a few

semi-tones higher or lower. This very elementary talent has

been fostered and developed by man, calling to aid the power

of mimicry nascent in the bird.


At the present time the training of this bird to pipe really

pretty airs has become quite a profession among the peasants in

the Black forest, Spessart Mountains, and other wooded districts

of Germany, in which Bullfinches abound. They devote their

attention seriously to the rearing and training of numbers of

young birds every year, and dispose of them, sometimes at very

remunerative prices, to the travelling dealers who supply the

different markets of the civilized world.


Now, it must not be supposed that because a first-class

piping Bullfinch fetches easily five pounds sterling in London,

or as much as fort}^ dollars in New York, that a royal road to

fortune has been found. The general result of a season’s

Bullfinch training is not always so lucrative as this might lead

one to believe : for, when visiting Fulda, Gelnhausen, and other

places in the training districts, I ascertained that scarcely two

nestlings in a hundred attain the perfection requisite to com¬

mand such high figures, and the dealers have, of late years,

displayed such eagerness to obtain their stock early, that the

birds have not always time to complete their studies and become

valuable.


But, even if that were not so, there is much to contend

with. A large proportion of the young birds are females ; some



