214 THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 
I believe, at present, our English birds are equal in 
singing to any that can be imported. 
The song of this sweet warbler is not its only re- 
commendation ; its plumage is handsome, and it is 
capable of the strongest attachment, as the following 
tale will prove ; and we have been assured that it is 
strictly true : — 
" A lady had a bullfinch of which she was par- 
ticularly fond, and the attachment of this little crea- 
ture was so extreme, as to surpass everything of the 
kind ever known : her presence created a sunshine 
to him, and he sung and rejoiced with his whole 
heart when she was by, while he drooped in her 
absence, and would sit silent in his cage for hours 
together. The lady fell ill, and was confined to her 
bed for a week with so severe an indisposition as 
to be unable to attend to her bird ; at length, when 
she was sufficiently recovered to see him, she or- 
dered his cage to be brought and set upon the bed 
beside her; the poor bird knew her voice in an 
instant, though it was weak and low, from extreme 
fever; the cage door was opened, he uttered a shrill 
cry of joy, between a song and a scream, fluttered 
from her hand to her cheek, and fell down dead in 
