CHAPTER II. 



THE GOLDFINCH. 



The Goldfinch, which is cousin to the Linnet, is wonderfully- 

 clever and docile, as I shall show you presently. In the first 

 place, however, let me say a word or two about bird cleverness 

 in general, which I copy from Jules Michelet's interesting work, 

 " The Bird." Speaking of the great, cruel, and rapacious 

 family of the Raptores, or Birds of Prey, he expresses satisfac- 

 tion in the idea that this race of destroyers is decreasing, and 

 that there may come a time when they no longer exist on the 

 earth. He has no admiration for them, though they may be 

 the swiftest of the swift, and the strongest of the strong, be- 

 cause they put forth none of the higher qualities of courage, 

 address, or patient endurance in taking their prey, which are 

 all weak and powerless in comparison with themselves ; their 

 poor unoffending victims. "All these cruel tyrants of the air," 

 he says, "like the serpents, have flattened skulls, which show 

 the want of intellect and intelligence. These birds of prey, 

 with their small brains, offer a striking contrast to the amiable 

 and intelligent species which we find amongst the smaller birds. 

 The head of the former is only a beak, that of the latter is a 

 face." Afterwards, to prove this more strongly, he gives a 

 table to show the proportion of brain to the size of the body in 

 these different species of birds. Thus the chaffinch, the spar- 



