248 CLASS AVES. 



9 



formed, therefore, except with those chaffinches which are 

 used as calls or decoys to attract the wild ones into the 

 nets. But this means is not necessary to produce good 

 appellants. It is sufficient to put them into the moulting, 

 which is done thus, and the same method will answer for 

 any other birds destined for a similar purpose. Towards the 

 end of April, you take two or three of each species, and 

 much more chaffinches than others, which are tamed by 

 gradual diminution of daylight before they are plunged into 

 utter darkness. They are finally enclosed in an obscure 

 chamber, or in a chest. This preparation demands at least 

 fifteen days. You begin at first by keeping the door and 

 windows half closed, and continue by degrees to deprive 

 them of light, until at last a complete obscurity reigns in 

 the apartment. Every singing bird should be carefully 

 removed from the neighbourhood ; the birds should be cleaned 

 every day, fresh food given to them, and the water changed, 

 which should be kept in a larger vessel than usual. But 

 this task should never be performed except in the evening by 

 candle-light. If this be done in the chamber where they 

 are kept, the cages are attached to the wall, one near the 

 other, or suspended with rings to a perch which is placed 

 across the middle of the chamber. If there be any among 

 them that sing, their tails mnst be plucked out. They are 

 kept thus until the month of August, at the least, at which 

 period they are taken out of the obscure chamber. It is 

 necessary to do this cautiously, and give them light by 

 degrees, in the same proportions as it had been before with- 

 drawn. But first, it is necessary to purge them, which should 

 have been also done on their entrance into this sort of disci- 

 pline. This purgation is accomplished by giving them for 

 three or four days some beet-root, sugar well strained and 

 clarified, with a little brown sugar in their water. Then 



