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 
of a singing bird, or a bird of 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 caill-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 
oe 
