324 APPENDIX. V. 



in the beginning of the season, it frequently 

 happens, that forty are taken and not one fe- 

 male among them : and probably the same would 

 be observed with regard to other birds (as has 

 been done with relation to the wheat^ear) if they 

 were attended to. 



An experienced and intelligent bird-catcher 

 informed us, that such birds as breed twice a 

 year, generally have in their first brood a ma- 

 jority of males, and in their second, of females, 

 which may in part account for the above ob- 

 servation. 



We must not omit mention of the bulfinch, 

 though it does not properly come under the title 

 t)f a singing bird, or a bird oi flight, as it does 

 not often move farther than from hedge to 

 hedge; yet, as the bird sells well on account 

 of its learning to whistle tunes, and sometimes 

 flies over the fields where the nets are laid ; the 

 bird-catchers have often a call-bird to ensnare 

 it, though most of them can imitate the call 

 with their mouths. It is remarkable with re- 

 gard to this bird, that the female answers the 

 purpose of a call-bird as well as the male, which 

 is not experienced in any other bird taken by 

 the London bird-catchers. 



It may perhaps surprise, that under this ar- 

 ticle of singing birds, we have not mentioned 



