CONCERNING “ TRICK ” GOLDFINCHES. 
add poppy-seed and soaked and bruised rape-seed to their bread 
and milk. Feed them at least ten times a day, beginning as 
soon after daybreak as possible, and continuing, at stated hours, 
till dusk in the evening. From the poppy and rape-seed they 
may be gradually weaned, by introducing whole canary-seed, of 
| which they are veiy fond, and which, indeed, should ever after- 
j wards be the staple of then* food. 
After all, however, you will find it better to purchase a 
“ pusher,” as is called the bud when he leaves the nest and has 
been “ on his own hands ” for a few days ; or even a “ grey- 
pate ” or “ brancher,” which is a full-grown bird still retaining 
his nestling feathers. Until the first moult they have grey, 
instead of crimson polls : hence their name. It is by no means 
advisable to buy them during the time they are moulting, as 
they are likely to take cold and die. It is a common practice 
to place “ pushers ” or “ greypates ” under canaries, in order 
that they may learn the canary’s song, but in my opinion this 
process is much like that of gilding gold. 
Concerning “ Trick ” Goldfinches. — It is quite possible to 
teach goldfinches, canaries, &c., to perform astonishing tricks. 
They may, as doubtless many of my readers are aware, be 
taught to fire cannons, to feign death, to stand unmoved amidst 
the flashing of fireworks, to mount a ladder with all the agility of 
a bricklayer, and other wonderful feats, “ too numerous to men- 
tion.” I could teach you how all this may be done, but will not. 
It would be worse than useless, it would be wicked, and the only 
end I should accomplish would be to gain your contempt, and 
incur the just reprehension for endeavouring to inculcate lessons 
of cruelty. 
I have given considerable time and attention to this and 
kindred subjects, and the result is that whenever I happen to 
encounter an exhibition wherein performing children or birds, or 
horses, or dogs, or pigs, are the principal features, I feel the 
strongest inclination to “ walk in,” as invited by the man at 
the door, and horsewhip the proprietor. 
A few years ago, before that annual abomination, Green- 
wich Fair, was abolished, I scraped an acquaintance with an 
old (and penitent) circus -master, and together we visited the 
wretched abodes of every performing Christian and beast 
we could find, and in every case it was the same for all — from 
the poor spangled little children who nightly delighted large 
audiences in their “ drawing-room entertainment,” to the lean 
and learned pig — there was but one schoolmaster, appalling 
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