THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 221 
as well as in other animals. One young bullfinch 
learns with ease and quickness, another with diffi- 
culty, and slowly. The former will repeat, without 
hesitation, several parts of a song ; the latter will be 
hardly able to whistle one, after nine months unin- 
terrupted teaching. But it has been remarked that 
those birds which learn with most difficulty, remem- 
ber the songs which have once been well learnt 
better and longer, and rarely forget them, even when 
moulting.^' 
The bullfinch is not singular in this, for how 
often has it been the case in our own species, that 
persons who have, when adults, possessed the 
greatest genius, were in their juvenile days dull and 
unpromising, and with difficulty learned their stated 
tasks. Some of our best authors, when at school, 
were looked upon as mere dunces by their masters 
and fellow students. Unlike most other birds, the 
male and female bullfinch continue together the 
whole year ; and so tenderly attached are they, that 
they can hardly live when separated ; if parted, they in- 
cessantly repeat their call in a tender and languid strain . 
The following fable of the bullfinch and daw 
may perhaps entertain 
u 2 
