A TREATISE 



ON 



BRITISH SINGING BIRDS. 



THE CANARY. 



In beginning this treatise on British Song 

 Birds, I have placed the canary^ the first, for 

 the following reasons : first, because it is 

 more known and more common than any 

 other song bird whatever; secondly, be- 

 cause its notes are the sweetest and most 

 melodious of all others, the nightingale 

 excepted ; and thirdly, because the breeding 

 it, so as to produce a bird of a certain kind 

 of plumage, which I shall describe here- 

 after, forms a kind of fancy, and affords 

 a source of profit and amusement to a nu- 



* Although not originally a native of Great 

 Britain, I am sure that the reader will excuse my 

 calling it a British song bird, seeing that it has 

 been naturalized in this country during a period 

 of three hundred years. 



B 



