578 FRINGILLID&. 
become mere chatterers, which would be doubly vexatious 
after having bestowed trouble in teaching them. Different 
degrees of capacity are shown here, as well as in other 
animals: one young Bullfinch learns with ease and quick- 
ness; another with difficulty, and slowly; the former 
will repeat, without hesitation, several parts of a song; 
the latter will hardly be able to whistle one part, after 
nine months’ uninterrupted teaching: but it has been 
remarked that those birds which learn with most difficulty, 
remember the songs which they have once been well learned, 
better and longer, and rarely forget them, even when 
moulting. The instrument used is a bird-organ, or a fla- 
geolet, but generally the former. Many birds, when 
young, will learn some strains of airs whistled or played 
to them regularly every day; but it is only those whose 
memory is capable of retaining them that will abandon 
their natural song, and adopt fluently, and repeat without 
hesitation, the air that has been taught them. Thus a 
young Goldfinch learns, it is true, some part of the 
melody played to a Bullfinch ; but it will never be able to 
render it as perfectly as this bird: this difference is not 
caused by the greater or less flexibility of the organ, but 
rather by the superiority of memory in the one species 
over that of the other. Numbers of Bullfinches, which 
have been taught in the manner described, are brought 
from Germany to London every spring, and are frequently 
advertised for sale in the London newspapers: the price, 
which is sometimes considerable, depends on the powers 
and proficiency of the performer.” 
The Bullfinch, as before observed, is common in Eng- 
land, and Mr. William Thompson writes me word that it 
is not uncommon in certain localities in Ireland. Accord- 
mg to Sir William Jardine and Mr. Macgillivray, it is 
