1. The _White Bullfinch_, which is of an ashy white, or wholly white,
with dark spots on the back.
2. The _Black Bullfinch_. These are most generally females, which become
black, either with age, when they are only fed on hemp seed, or with
having been kept when young in a totally dark place. Some resume at
their moulting their natural colours; others remain black; but this
black is not the same in all; some are of a brilliant raven black,
others dull, and not so dark on the belly; in some the head only is of
a raven black, the rest of the body being duller; in others the black is
mixed with red spots on the belly, or the latter is entirely red. I have
seen one in which the head and breast, as well as the upper and under
parts of the body, were of a raven black, every other part of a dull
black, with the wings and tail white; it was a very handsome bird,
rather larger than a red-breast.
3. The _Speckled Bullfinch_. It is thus called, for, besides its natural
colours, it is spotted with black and white, or white and ash colour.
4. The _Mongrel Bullfinch_. It is the offspring of a female reared in
the house from the nest, and of a male canary. Its shape and colour
partake of those of the parent birds; its note is very agreeable, and
softer than that of the canary; but it is very scarce. This union rarely
succeeds; but when tried, a very ardent and spirited canary should be
chosen[31].
5. The other varieties are: the _Large Bullfinch_, about the size of a
thrush, and the _Middling_, or _Common_. As to dwarf birds, which are
not as large as a chaffinch, it is a bird-catcher's story, for this
difference in size is observed in all kinds of birds. I can affirm it
with the more certainty, having had opportunities every year of seeing
hundreds of these birds, both wild and tame. I have even in the same
nest found some as small as red-breasts, and others as large as a
crossbill.
HABITATION.--When wild, bullfinches are found over Europe and Russia.
They are particularly common in the mountainous forests of Germany.
The male and female never separate during the whole year. In winter
they wander about everywhere in search of buds.
In the house those which are caught in a snare are often let run
about. These birds not being very unruly or very active, a
middling-sized cage will do, in which those which have learned songs
are kept; but they must be kept in separate rooms, as they will
mutually spoil their songs if left together.
FOOD.--When wild the bullfinch does not often suffer from the failure
of its food; for it eats pine and fir seeds, the fruit of the ash and
maple, corn, all kinds of berries, the buds of the oak, beech, and
pear trees, and even linseed, millet, rape, and nettle seed.
In the house those which run about may be fed on the universal paste,
and, for a change, rape seed may be added; those which are taught
must be fed only on poppy seed, with a little hemp seed, and now and
then a little biscuit without spice. It has been remarked that those
which are fed entirely on rape seed soaked in water live much longer,
and are more healthy. The hemp seed is too heating, sooner or later
blinds them, and always brings on a decline. A little green food,
such as lettuce, endive, chickweed, water-cresses, a little apple,
particularly the kernels, the berries of the service tree, and the
like, is agreeable and salutary to them.
BREEDING.--These tenderly affectionate birds can hardly live when
separated from one another. They incessantly repeat their call with a
languishing note, and continually caress. They can sometimes be made
to breed in the house, like the canary, but their eggs are rarely
fruitful. In the wild state they breed twice every year, each time
laying from three to six eggs, of a bluish white, spotted with violet
and brown at the large end. Their nest, which they build in the most
retired part of a wood, or in a solitary quickset hedge, is
constructed with little skill, of twigs which are covered with moss.
The young ones are hatched in fifteen days. Those which are to be
taught must be taken from the nest when the feathers of the tail
begin to grow; and must be fed only on rape seed soaked in water and
mixed with white bread; eggs would kill them or make them blind.
Their plumage is then of a dark ash-colour, with the wings and tail
blackish brown; the males may be known at first by their reddish
breast; so that when these only are wished to be reared they may be
chosen in the nest, for the females are not so beautiful, nor so
easily taught.
Although they do not warble before they can feed themselves, one need
not wait for this to begin their instruction[32], for it will succeed
better, if one may say so, when infused with their food; since
experience proves that they learn those airs more quickly, and
remember them better, which they have been taught just after eating.
It has been observed several times, that these birds, like the
parrots, are never more attentive than during digestion. Nine months
of regular and continued instruction are necessary before the bird
acquires what amateurs call firmness, for if one ceases before this
time, they spoil the air, by suppressing or displacing the different
parts, and they often forget it entirely at their first moulting. In
general it is a good thing to separate them from the other birds,
even after they are perfect; because, owing to their great quickness
in learning, they would spoil the air entirely by introducing wrong
passages; they must be helped to continue the song when they stop,
and the lesson must always be repeated whilst they are moulting,
otherwise they will become mere chatterers, which would be doubly
vexatious after having had much trouble in teaching them.
DISEASES.--Those bullfinches which are caught in a snare or net are
rarely ill, and may be preserved for eight years or more; but those
reared from the nest are subject to many diseases, caused by their
not having their natural food, or by those injurious delicacies which
are always lavished on favourite birds; they rarely live more than
six years. The surest means of preserving them healthy for a long
time, is to give them neither sweets nor tit-bits of any kind,
scrupulously to confine their food to rape seed, adding now and then
a very little hemp seed to please them, and a good deal of the green
food before mentioned. The bottom of their cages should be covered
with river sand, as the bird there finds some stones which aid the
functions of the stomach. Their most frequent diseases are moulting,
costiveness, diarrhoea, epilepsy, grief, and melancholy, in which
case they are quite silent, and remain immoveable, unless the cause
can be discovered. They must not be given any delicacy, and must be
fed entirely on soaked rape seed. A clove in their water, proper
food, and particularly a good deal of refreshing green food, enables
them to pass the moulting time in good health.
MODE OF TAKING.--There are few birds so easily attracted by the decoy
bird as bullfinches. They may also be taken by any of the usual
means. In winter numbers may be caught by a noose, by hanging to it
such berries as the bird likes; in spring and autumn they may be
caught in the area or barn floor trap; and provided they see berries
there, the decoy bird is not wanted; it is sufficient if one imitates
their soft cry of "_tui, tui_," in the hut.
ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--Although the song of the male and female
bullfinch, in their wild state, is very harsh and disagreeable, yet
if well taught while young, as they are in Hesse and Fulda, where
there are schools of these little musicians, for all Germany,
Holland, and England, they learn to whistle all kinds of airs and
melodies with so soft and flute-like a tone, that they are great
favourites with amateurs, and particularly with the ladies. There are
some of these little birds which can whistle distinctly three
different airs, without spoiling or confusing them in the least.
Added to this attraction the bullfinch becomes exceedingly tame,
sings whenever it is told to do so, and is susceptible of a most
tender and lasting attachment, which it shows by its endearing
actions; it balances its body, moves its tail from right to left, and
spreads it like a fan. It will even repeat words, with an accent and
tone which indicates sensibility, if one could believe that it
understood them; but its memory must not be overloaded. A single air,
with a prelude or a short flourish to begin with, is as much as the
bird can learn and remember, and this it will execute to the greatest
perfection. These little prodigies would be more interesting and
agreeable, if their Hessian instructors possessed a little musical
taste, but these are generally tradespeople, employed about the house
with their different occupations and trades; and hymns, airs, and
minuets of a hundred years old, public house songs, or some learnt of
their apprentices, in general compose the whole of their music.
The bullfinch can also imitate the songs of other birds; but in
general it is not permitted to do so, that it may only learn to
repeat the airs which are taught it.
Different degrees of capacity are shown here, as well as in other
animals. One young bullfinch learns with ease and quickness, another
with difficulty and slowly; the former will repeat, without
hesitation, several parts of a song; the latter will be hardly able
to whistle one, after nine months' uninterrupted teaching. But it has
been remarked that those birds which learn with most difficulty
remember the songs, which have once been well learnt, better and
longer, and rarely forget them, even when moulting. Mr. Thiem[33],
bird-seller, at Waltershausen, near Gotha, sends annually to Berlin
and London one or two hundred bullfinches, instructed in this manner,
at from one to several pounds sterling a-piece, according as they are
more or less accomplished, whilst a wild one would cost only two or
three pence. These, however, are also kept in the room and prized,
both on account of their beauty and the great ease with which they
are tamed; they soon learn to fly on the hand, to receive their food,
or will even take it from the mouth, and become at last as familiar
as if they had been reared from the nest. The following are the means
which are employed to tame them:--As soon as a bullfinch is caught and
brought into the room, it must be put into a cage with food
sufficient for the first day only; for the loss of its liberty does
not prevent its eating as soon as it is disengaged from the lime
twigs or noose. The next day a band must be put round the body and
wings, like that which bird-catchers put round a decoy bird, which
they let run about out of doors; by means of this band the bullfinch
may be fastened by a piece of packthread, a foot in length, to some
place from which it cannot fall; this will prevent its beating itself
to death with its wings; a little bell may be fastened to a box,
which when filled with food must be given to the bird, at the same
time ringing the bell; it must be then left that it may eat; this
must be repeated several times in the day; the same must be done when
it is given anything to drink. The poor little captive will not at
first either eat or drink in any one's presence; it is therefore
necessary to retire for the two first days after having given it the
box, and only approach it by degrees, till it is accustomed to eat in
the presence of its master, which it will soon be, for generally on
the third day, as soon as it hears the bell and sees the box, it hops
forward, and eats without the least shyness. Then the distance must
be increased by degrees to make it come farther and farther, when, as
soon as it has eaten, it may be taken on the hand and carried here
and there, though it may seem a little frightened, but not being able
to escape it will soon become used to this treatment, and will even
begin to come to eat on the hand by continuing to do this for the
third and fourth days; it will fly of itself at the sound of the bell
to the hand which holds the box; after this the fastening may be
loosened, and if one only move from the bird gradually, it will
fearlessly approach and perch on the hand. Should it escape, however,
it must be again confined and left without food for some hours. By
this means a wild bullfinch will in eight days become accustomed to
fly immediately to the hand, or wherever it hears the bell; in order
to finish its education, it is well to increase the difficulty of
getting at its food, by putting it in a small bag with a very little
opening; it must also only have rape seed in the cage, keeping the
hemp seed, which it likes best, for the hand or little bag. It may be
taught to drink out of one's mouth by keeping it without water for
five or six hours. It may even be accustomed to go and return,
provided the house is not too near a wood. The surest means of
preventing too long an absence is to put a female bullfinch in a cage
in the window, or to leave her in the room with her wing clipped; its
affection will soon bring it back to her, and it will certainly never
abandon her altogether.
Tame bullfinches have been known (says Buffon) to escape from the
aviary, and live at liberty in the woods for a whole year, and then
to recollect the voice of the person who had reared them, return to
her, never more to leave her. Others have been known, which when
forced to leave their first master, have died of grief. These birds
remember very well, and often too well, any one who has injured them.
One of them having been thrown down, with its cage, by some of the
lowest order of people, did not seem at first much disturbed by it,
but afterwards it would fall into convulsions as soon as it saw any
shabbily dressed person, and it died in one of these fits eight
months after the first accident.
A bullfinch, belonging to a lady often mentioned before, being
subject to very frightful dreams, which made it fall from its perch,
and beat itself in the cage, no sooner heard the affectionate voice
of its mistress than, notwithstanding the darkness of the night, it
became immediately tranquil, and re-ascended its perch to sleep
again. It was very fond of chickweed, and as soon as it perceived one
bringing it to him, however much care was taken to prevent its
finding it easily, it would show its joy by its actions and cries.