[24] It is not common in Britain.—Translator.
[25] It may be added that it also walks very gracefully.—Translator.
[26] It appears that the Psittacus Ludovicianus, Linnæus, Perruche à tête aurore, Buffon, is the same species.
[27] I have, however, seen a woodpecker of this species which was reared by a lady, to whom it seemed very much attached. It had learnt of itself to go and return, knocking hard at the window if it was shut out. It was very amusing to see it climbing nimbly over its mistress till it had reached her mouth; it then asked her by light strokes of its beak for the food which she was accustomed to give it; this was generally a little meat. It disappeared one day, without any one’s knowing what accident had befallen it.—Translator.
[28] A bird of this species, which had been accidentally winged by a sportsman, was kept in a small cage of plain oak wood and wire. During a night and a day that his confinement lasted, his tapping labour was incessant; and after occupying his prison for that short space, he left the wood-work pierced and worn like worm-eaten timber. His impatience at his situation was excessive; his efforts to escape were unremitted, and displayed much intelligence and cunning. He was fierce, fearlessly familiar, and voracious of the food placed before him. At the close of the second day he sunk under the combined effects of his vexation, assiduity, and voracity. His hammering was peculiarly laborious, for he did not peck as other birds do, but grasping hold with his immense feet, he turned upon them as a pivot, and struck with the whole weight of his body, thus assuming the appearance, with his entire form, of the head of a hammer, or, as birds may sometimes be seen to do on mechanical clocks, made to strike the hour by swinging on a wheel. The Rev. W. T. Bree, of Allesley, says, that having caught a nuthatch in the common brick trap used by boys, he was struck with the singular appearance of its bill, so unlike that of any bird he had ever seen. It was blunt at the end, and presented the appearance of having been truncated in an oblique direction, as if the natural beak had been cut off. He naturally inferred that it had been fairly ground down to about two-thirds of its original length, by the bird’s pecking at the bricks, in its efforts to escape from the trap.—Translator.
[29] The parrot crossbill is a very different species, but is rare.—Translator.
[30] The too great heat has doubtless also something to do with it.—Translator.
[31] However difficult this pairing may be, it sometimes succeeds very well. A bullfinch and female canary once produced five young ones, which died on a journey which they could not bear. Their large beak, and the blackish down with which they were covered, showed that they were more like their father than mother.—Translator.
[32] I do not recommend the employment of bird organs for instructing birds, because they are rarely accurate, and their notes are harsh and discordant; for bullfinches repeat the sounds exactly as they hear them, whether harsh or false, according to the instrument used. The good and pure whistling of a man of taste is far preferable; the bird repeats it in a soft, flute-like tone. When one cannot whistle well it is better to use a flageolet.—Translator.
[33] Mr. Thiem, son of the Mr. Thiem in the text, arrives annually in London in April or May, with birds for sale.—Translator.