I4 YELLOW BIRD, OR GOLDFINCH. 



had tried the male yellow bird with the female canary, and 

 the female yellow bird with the male canary, but without 

 effect, though he kept them for several years together, and 

 supplied them with proper materials for building. Mr Hassey 

 of New York, however, who keeps a great number of native 

 as well as foreign birds, informed me that a yellow bird 

 paired with a canary in his possession, and laid eggs, but did 

 not hatch, which he attributed to the lateness of the season. 



These birds were seen by Mr M'Kenzie, in his route 

 across the continent of North America, as far north as lat. 

 54° ; they are numerous in all the Atlantic States north of 

 the Carolinas; abound in Mexico, and are also found in great 

 numbers in the savannahs of Guiana. 



The seeds of the lettuce, thistle, hemp, &c, are their 

 favourite food, and it is pleasant to observe a few of them at 

 work in a calm day, detaching the thistle down, in search of 



canaries, wonderfully trained, relates, that "one appeared dead, and was 

 held up by the tail or claw without exhibiting any signs of life ; a 

 second stood on its head with its claws in the air : a third imitated a 

 Dutch milkmaid going to market with pails on its shoulders ; a fourth 

 mimicked a Venetian girl looking out at a window ; a fifth appeared as 

 a soldier, and mounted guard as a sentinel ; and the sixth acted as a 

 cannonier, with a cap on its head, a firelock on its shoulder, and a match 

 in its claw, and discharged a small cannon. The same bird also acted 

 as if it had been -wounded. It was wheeled in a barrow, to convey it, 

 as it were, to the hospital ; after which it flew away before the com- 

 pany : a seventh turned a kind of windmill ; and the last bird stood in 

 the midst of some fireworks, which were discharged all round it, and 

 this without exhibiting the least symptom of fear." The American 

 goldfinch is no less docile than its congeners. Mr Audubon relates, that 

 they are often caught in trap-cages ; and that he knew one, which had 

 undergone severe training, draw water for its drink from a glass, by 

 means of a little chain fastened to a soft leathern belt round its body, 

 and another, equally light, fastened to a little bucket, which was kept 

 by its weight in the water : it was also obliged to supply itself with food, 

 by being obliged to draw towards its bill a little chariot filled with 

 seeds. 



Female is represented on Plate VI. of Vol. III., in Bonaparte's con- 

 tinuation. — Ed, 



