CAGE AND SINGING BIRDS. 
81 
the little musician can manage, and this should be repeated 
to him frequently at the time of moulting', or he may chance 
jto forget it, or drop a note here and there, and so mar its 
harmony. 
But the bullfinch, we all know, can do other things than 
pipe; he can perform many pretty and amusing tricks — will 
come and go when told, balance his body backwards and 
forwards as though he were dancing, spread out his tail like 
I a fan, eat out of the hand or mouth, and in various ways 
manifest an attachment to those who are kind to him, 
stronger, perhaps, than that shown by any other bird ; the 
soft fiute-like notes in which he pipes his acquired melodies, 
are quite expressive of his gentle and amiable disposition. 
Bechstein mentions — as curious varieties of this species 
which may be sometimes seen in the aviary — the white, 
black, and speckled bullfinches ; the first of these is white, 
j with a gray tinge, or pure white, with a few spots of black 
on the head ; the second is wholly black, and this is generally 
a hen bird, which has been kept when young in a dark place, 
I or a bird, either male or female, which has been fed too 
^exclusively on hempseed. Some individuals of this variety 
! when they moult resume their original colours, others re- 
main black, and the black, too, differs greatly in intensity ; 
with some it is deep and glossy, with others dull, smoky, or 
rusty ; occasionally the belly is more or less red, in one in- 
stance the wings and tail were white. The speckled variety 
may be either white or black, with spots of the opposite 
colour. 
A hybrid variety is mentioned, being a cross between a 
hen bullfinch and a cock canary ; in form and plumage it 
i somewhat resembles both parents, and is a delightful song- 
I ster, not so loud as the canary, but with notes more soft and 
' mellow. This is a very rare bird, it being difficult to breed ' 
and rear such. 
Then there are three so-called varieties which are distin- 
guished as large, middling or common, and small bullfinches, 
the first being about the size of a thrush, the second of a 
chaffinch, and the third considerably smaller; these, how- 
ever, Bechstein believes to be only accidental variations, 
having', as he says, seen birds differing as greatly in size as 
any of these, which were taken at one time from the same 
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