o ~F BIRDS. 9 $ 
fccndants. The Goldfinch . i v ry a&ive bird, 
and in an aviary always c;i ;. rs to rooft oil 
the higheft perch. 
-Their docility is very furprifing; tlr have been 
taught to dance, to counterfeit death, to fire a 
little cannon, to move a fmall litter, to open a 
box in which their food is kept, and to draw up 
a little bucket of water out of a glafs fufpended 
at fome diftance below their case. 
Their fong is pleafing; they begin to fing in 
the month of March, and continue all the fum- 
mer. Bird-fanciers pretend that the Goldfinches 
in Kent, excel thofe of every other county. 
They are fubjedt in confinement to epileptic 
fits. 
The CANARY-BIRD. 
The beak is whitifh, the body a yellow inclining to white. 
The wing and tail feathers are of a green cad. 
It inhabits the Canary iflands, feeding princi¬ 
pally upon the feeds of the phalaris, or canary 
feed ; in confinement it will eat hemp, flax, and 
rape feed ; it breeds with the Goldfinch, and their 
young are fertile, but not in the fecond generation. 
Of this 'very interefting bird there are many 
varieties j the natural confequence of its being 
domefticatcd, 
