82 
CAGE AND SINGING BIRDS. 
nest. Bullfinclies in confinement — if they range the aviaiy, si 
which, being* quiet inoffensive birds, they may be allowed a 
to— will do ver}^ well on the universal paste, with now and g 
then a little rape-seed. If kept in a cage, they should be p 
fed chiefly upon rape and other seed, taking care to soak the c 
hemp first, and not give too much of it ; a little plain bis- n 
cuit soaked is also good for them, and occasionally water- l 
cress, lettuce, a piece of apple, and service or other berries. i 
Bullfinches are easily captured by one or other of the '\ 
methods prescribed for other finches, especially if a decoy ? 
bird be used ; they will live eight years or more in confine- a 
ment, and are rarely ilL Those which are reared from the c 
nest appear to be much more delicate, seldom living beyond l 
six years, and being subject to many ailments, such as cos- | d 
tiveness, epilepsy, diarrhoea, for which they must be treated a 
like other birds. They sometimes mope and sit apart with t 
rufiled plumes, and should then be fed only on soaked rape- t 
seed. For the moulting sickness they should have g^ood o 
food, ants' eggs, and a rusty nail in their water. e 
\ ii 
FOEEIGN FINCHES. l 
s 
Among the imported song birds are some very beautiful ^ 
and admired species belonging to the finch family ; of these, ^ 
we shall presently give a description. But we must first ; ^ 
speak at some length of a well-known relative of theirs, ' j 
which occupies, as it were, an intermediate position between ^ 
them and the native finches for although originally a 
foreign bird, and still, to a great extent, an imported one, ^ 
it is so widely diffused through, and so constantly bred in 
this country, that it can scarcely be considered an alien. We ^ 
allude, of com^se, to ■ 
THE CANARY FINCH, j 
Called by Linnaeus, Fringilla Canaria^ because it first jj 
came, as is generally supposed, from the Canary Isles, where j[ 
the species is still found in abundance, singing very sweetly, ^ 
although not, perhaps, so scientifically as their richly- \ 
attired, and better instructed relations. Voyagers tell us \ 
that these wild birds of the Canary Isles have mostly gray f 
plumage, and this tint picv-alis to a considerable extent in j 
