76 CAGE AND SINGING BIRDS. 
confinement^ they may be fed the year through upon sum- 
mer rape-seed, which should be well soaked in water before 
it is given : they are very fond of hemp-seed ; a little about 
once a week, is good for them : they should also occasionally 
have groundsel, and other green food, and a few ants' eggs, 
or mealworms, which are a great treat. When moulting, 
bread and milk should be given. Those that have the run 
of the room or aviary, will take the universal food, Avith 
bread crumbs, meat, oats, and a variety of other things- 
they should be provided with a fir bough, in a warm 
corner, for perching, or a space separated by a grating. 
They sing best, and most continuously, in cages, which 
should not be lofty, but rather wide and long, as the birds 
do not fly up, but like to pass backwards and forwards, and 
be able to turn quickly. When there are several cages in a 
room, they should be hung so that the birds cannot see each 
other, or their attention will be diverted from their song. 
The whole secret of obtaining a good singer, says Bechstein, 
is to keep the cage in a dark place, and he recommends that 
the young birds taken early in the spring, shall be so kept 
until the month of May, by which time they will have 
learned their artificial strain. 
It has been asserted that the chaffinch has no natural 
song of its own, and that it cannot imitate perfectly the 
song of any other bird, yet Bechstein speaks of ivild 
chaffinches, which have a very distinct and perfect song 5 and 
few as are the notes of those indigenous in this country, yet 
they have sometimes continuity and modulation sufficient to 
form a very pleasing strain. And with regard to the 
powers of imitation possessed by the bird, they seem to be 
equal to those of most other finches. With the exception 
of the canary and the nightingale, there are few songsters 
which they cannot very closely follow, their patience and 
docility rendering them good, if not over-quick learners. 
It has been noticed as a remarkable peculiarity in the 
chaffinch, that every spring it seems necessary for it to 
relearn its song ; this process is called recording^ and consists 
in the broken utterance of chirpings and mutterings, so to 
speak, of detached notes and short passages of the appa- 
rently forgotten melody^ from one to four weeks is the 
time occupied in this recording, and those are esteemed the 
