One thing peculiar to chaffinches is the necessity of teaching them their song every year, and this in the manner proper for them, during the four or five weeks this exercise lasts. They first utter a murmur, or weak warbling, to which they add at first, in an under voice, one or two, and afterwards several syllables of their song; they are then said to _record_. A chaffinch that takes only a week or fortnight to repeat this lesson for fully bringing out its voice, is reckoned among the geniuses of its species. It is known that other birds whose power of singing is confined to a particular season, also warble feebly, and mingle with their warbling some foreign notes, especially harsh and confused sounds; but none produce sounds so peculiar, and that have so little relation to their own song. If we pay a little attention, however, we shall find that this exercise is intended less to awaken the memory than to render the throat, stiffened by a tolerably long state of inaction, more pliant, and to bring back its natural flexibility. Wild chaffinches, on their return in spring, do not delay to record; those in the house soon learn, but they are obliged to exercise themselves for nearly two months before they can execute their song to perfection. The singing season does not generally extend beyond June, but young chaffinches brought up in a room prolong it to October, and sometimes later. Some amateurs of the song, rather than friends of the bird, to procure the pleasure of hearing it night and day in all its strength, employ a very cruel and inhuman contrivance. They first place the cage in a very obscure place, and accustom the poor little creature to find its food in the dark; they then blind it, either by destroying the pupils of the eyes with a red hot iron wire, or by passing it over the edges of the eyelids, unite and paste them completely together. Others shut up these poor mutilated creatures in a cool place, almost without air, during the summer, in order that when in autumn they are brought to the window, and breathe the fresh air, they may express their joy by their lively and repeated song. What can we think of the heart and morals of people who for a slight amusement thus enjoy the sufferings of a sensitive being that is unfortunately in their power? THE MOUNTAIN FINCH. Fringilla montifringilla, LINNÆUS; Le Pinson d'Ardenne, BUFFON; Der Bergfink, BECHSTEIN. This bird is six inches and a quarter in length, of which the tail measures two and a half and the beak half an inch; this is yellow, with a black tip. The feet, nine lines high, are dark flesh-coloured; all the feathers of the head and cheeks are black with reddish edges, wider and more distinct in young males, and becoming fainter from age, almost disappear in old ones, whose heads become quite black; the tail rather forked, and black.