THE BULLFINCH. 
very nasty one. I am surprised to find it patronised by tire 
most popular of our modem bird-breeders. Apart from other 
considerations, I object to the practice on sanitary grounds, 
and I have not the least doubt that unless a person be in the 
most perfect health, food or water confined for a minute in his 
mouth and then administered to a tiny song-bird would, if the 
trick were persisted in, infallibly poison it. If any one ima- 
gines that the poor little creatures derive any pleasure from 
imbibing water by this means — tepid and unwholesome as it 
must be — they may take my word that they are utterly 
mistaken. 
Besides, if properly trained, there is no end to the diverting 
tricks he will perform for your amusement with his drinking 
apparatus. He will draw up his water in a tiny bone bucket 
from a cistern, hauling in the well-rope with his beak, and 
securing every fresh haul with his feet till the bucket reaches 
the surface. Indeed, a lad of my acquaintance taught his 
bullfinch to perform a much more ingenious trick. He manu- 
factured a liliputian pump (extremely simple), the tube of which 
penetrated the bottom of the bird’s cage and lodged in a vessel 
containing water, while the upper part stuck upright within 
the cage. At the end of the handle was a ring, and whenever 
the little creature wanted water, he would mount his perch 
above the pump-handle, hook his claw in the ring, and work 
away till he had filled his cup. Then he would descend and 
quench his thirst. Hothing could more convincingly show the 
fondness of little birds for bathing than the behaviour of the 
bullfinch in question. Ho sooner was his empty bath put into 
his cage, than he would commence pumping away till the bath 
was half full ; then he would hop down, have a refreshing 
plunge, then up again, and pump, pump, till the bath was full. 
Then he would get in up to his very shoulders, and testify by 
his behaviour how much he enjoyed it. 
Diseases op the Bullfinch, and how to Cube them. — 
Bullfinches caught when full grown, if carefully fed and kept 
perfectly clean, may almost be said to be exempt from disease. 
If, however, he should get a surfeit, either from a pernicious 
indulgence in sweets, or from a cold, treat him pretty much 
as I have given you directions how to treat the canary 
under the same circumstances. If his bowels are loose, give 
him a little bruised rice; if they are hard and inflamed, a pinch 
of magnesia in his water every morning till he is relieved. If 
the surfeit arises from a cold, give him a few drops, say six, of 
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