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British Cage Birds. 



a Goldfinch, for this purpose, as they are much freer, and 

 call vociferously, and almost incessantly. A few thistles should 

 be placed in the trap, as they induce the wild birds to 

 approach the cage more readily. 



Newly caught birds soon accommodate themselves to 

 their changed circumstances, rarely sulking or repining for 

 their liberty, as a great many other species of wild birds 

 are wont to do when first caught ; and they adapt them- 

 selves with wonderful facility to a change of diet, which 

 should be a mixture of the seeds such as is specified under 

 the heading of " Food." If they become mopish, they should 

 be provided with a little green food, which may be either 

 watercress, dandelion, lettuce, groundsel, or ripe chickweed ; 

 and they should also have a little white bread sop made 

 with milk and sweetened with moist sugar. With this diet, 

 careful attention, and avoiding overcrowding, few, if any, will 

 succumb. 



Food and Treatment. — In a wild state. Goldfinches feed 

 upon a great variety of seeds, such as those of the runch or 

 wild rape, button grass, plantain, burdock, thistle, cabbage, 

 lettuce and turnip. Their favourite seeds, however, are those 

 of the button grass and thistle. They likewise eat green food 

 — lettuce, groundsel and chickweed. In confinement, they 

 should be fed, when first caught, with crushed hemp-seed, 

 maw, and linseed. After they are domesticated, gradually 

 wean them from the hemp-seed, and give them canary and 

 rape-seed only as their staple diet, and occasionally, as a 

 change, linseed, maw, inga, or lettuce seed ; no hemp, unless 

 ailing. 



During the moulting season they should be supplied with 

 plantain, button or knob grass, inga, maw and linseed, and 

 the tops of a few thistles, when ripe, of which they are 

 passionately fond. 



These birds may be fed and treated in all respects the 

 same as Canaries, as they will eat hard-boiled egg and bread, 

 crushed biscuits, and all sorts of green food, such as lettuce, 

 watercress, groundsel, chickweed, &c. They are not in the 

 least dainty, and expect a full share of all that is being 

 given to their companions, when kept, as they mostly are, 

 in a room with Canaries and other birds of the Fringilla 

 species. 



