STSKIN, or ABERDUVINE. I 29 
better food than it has at its trough, and it will 
foon become as tame as the moft familiar Ca- 
nary-Bird : it may even be made to come anct 
fit upon your hand at the found of a frnall bell} 
you have only to found it regularly at firft, eve- 
ry time you give it meat, for the mechanical 
effects of the axTociation of ideas take place even 
in animals. Although the Siikin feems nice in 
the choice of its food, yet it eats a- great deal, 
and the fenfations which depend on luxurious 
feeding have great influence on it. This how- 
ever is not its ruling paflion, or at leaflr it is 
fubordinate to a more noble one : in an aviary 
it always chufes a friend from among its own fpe- 
eies if it can find one; if not, from fome other: 
it takes upon itfelf the charge of feeding this 
friend like its young, putting the food into the 
other’s bill. It drinks as much as it eats, or at 
lead it drinks very often, but feldom bathes : 
it has been obferved, that it very feldom goes 
into the water, but hands on the rim of the 
wefiel, dipping its bill and bread, without much 
agitation, except perhaps in great heats. 
It is faid to build chiefly in mountain forefls ; 
its nefl is difficult to And ; fo difficult, as to be 
a received opinion with the vulgar, that it has 
the art of rendering its nefl inviiible, by means 
of a certain flone : accordingly nobody has 
giten any account of the nefl or manner of 
xaying of thefe birds ; though, if we would have 
