3 
6 
APPENDIX. VI. 
be useful to all those who happen to be pleased 
with singing birds; because it is clear, that, by 
educating a bird under several sorts, we may 
often make such a mixture, as to improve the 
notes which they would have learned in a wild 
state. | 
It results also from the experiment of the 
linnet being educated under the Vengolina, that 
we may introduce the notes of Asia, Africa, 
and America, into our own woods ; because, if that 
linnet had been set at liberty,* the nestlings of 
the next season would have adhered to the Ven- 
golina song, who would again transmit it to 
their descendants. 
But we may not only improve the notes of 
birds by a happy mixture, or introduce those 
which were never before heard in Great Britain ; 
we may also improve the instrument with which 
the passages are executed. 
If, for example, any one is particularly fond 
of what is called the song of the Canary bird, it 
would answer well to any such person, if a nest- 
ling linnet was brought up under a Canary bird, 
because the notes would be the same, but the in- 
* T know well, that itis commonly supposed, if you set a caged 
bird at liberty, it will neither be able to feed itself, nor otherwise 
live long, on account of its being persecuted by the wild ones. 
There is no foundation, however, for this notion; and I take it 
to arise from its affording an excuse for continuing to keep these 
birds in confinement. 
