. British birds for cages and aviaries; a hanbook relating to all British birds which may be kept in confinement .. . him is ravished by the harmony he pours forth in suchdelicious floods fromhis tiny throat, andwhen it is added that hecan imitate the sound ofhuman speech, enoughwill surely have beensaid to endear him toevery one. Strange to say, andsad too, the Bullfinchhas his enemies; notcats. Hawks and Owlsonly—that is no morethan is to be expectedand was arranged forby the Great FatherThe Bullfinch. to keep his numbers within bounds—butrational human beings, or at least beings supposed to
. British birds for cages and aviaries; a hanbook relating to all British birds which may be kept in confinement .. . him is ravished by the harmony he pours forth in suchdelicious floods fromhis tiny throat, andwhen it is added that hecan imitate the sound ofhuman speech, enoughwill surely have beensaid to endear him toevery one. Strange to say, andsad too, the Bullfinchhas his enemies; notcats. Hawks and Owlsonly—that is no morethan is to be expectedand was arranged forby the Great FatherThe Bullfinch. to keep his numbers within bounds—butrational human beings, or at least beings supposed to besuperior to prejudice and malice; yet the amount of thelatter that we have seen infused into the heel of a farmerwho had just shot one of these charming birds as hetrampled the yet palpitating carcase under foot, couldscarcely have been surpassed had the poor little bird beenthe arch enemy of mankind this rancour, friend. we asked.* Why ! was the reply, the vermin !—(fancy calling arosy-breasted Bullfinch vermin!)—Look at the buds heeats, curse him ! and a:ain the heavv iron-shod heel was. FOR CAGES AND A VIARIES. 67 brought down on the poor mangled remains in a mannerthat was dreadful to behold. Foolish agriculturist! do you never prune your trees ?Of course you do, and cut away more buds with one sweepof your knife than a Bullfinch would consume in a look at the economic waste. You dont know, oryou would not do it, that one of these little despised birdsmight, if properly educated, find a purchaser at the fabulousprice of ;f 10. Ten pounds sterling! think of that in thesedays of agricultural depression! and, in any case, it wouldbe worth los. if it only piped a note or two. A new light ? Let us hope so. But how is the Bullfinchto be trained ? Take the young ones from the nest (the ruddier breastedif you only want the cocks), and bring them up by hand,which you, friend farmer, or your wife or daughter canquite readily do, on bread and milk and
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectcag
