50 
THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 
No glue to join ; his little beak was all, 
And yet how neatly finished ! What nice hand, 
With every implement and means of art, 
And twenty years' apprenticeship to boot. 
Could make me such another ? Fondly, then, 
We boast of excellence, whose noblest skill 
Instinctive genius foils. 
Anon. 
Cowper's beautiful description of the faithful bird 
may perhaps be thought an exaggeration, and only 
the offspring of that poet's fertile imagination ; but I 
believe the goldfinch to be capable of the strongest 
attachment to its companion, as well as to the person 
who feeds and attends to all its little wants ; which, 
perhaps, the following circumstance, as related to me 
by a friend, may help to prove : — 
" In the autumn of the last year, whenever there 
happened to be a fine warm day, I used to hang a 
cage, with my favourite bird, against the garden wall ; 
for several days, successively, I observed another bird 
to come and perch upon the top of the cage, and 
chirp and flutter its golden wings, as if it were 
endeavouring to persuade the little captive to make 
its escape. One day I had put him into another 
