ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--The crossbill is rather a silly bird; in the cage its motions are like those of the parrot; when lively it swings its body like the siskin, and sings a few sharp strains, which are more or less monotonous, according to the different powers of the songsters--for some of the males far surpass the others in this short melody. It is easily tamed, can be carried about anywhere on the finger, and will go and return again without wandering. THE BULLFINCH. [Illustration] Loxia pyrrhula, LINNÆUS; Le Bouvreuil, BUFFON; Der Gimpel, BECHSTEIN. This is one of the indigenous tame birds which is a favourite with the rich and noble. Its body is thick and short. Its whole length is six inches and three quarters, of which the tail measures two and three quarters; the beak is only six lines in length, short, thick, and black; the iris is chestnut-coloured; the shanks eight lines high, and black; the top of the head, the circle of the beak, the chin, and beginning of the throat, are of a beautiful velvet black; the upper part of the neck, the back, and shoulders, deep grey; the rump white; the under part of the neck, the wide breast, and to the centre of the belly, are of a fine vermilion, less bright, however, in the young than old; the blackish pen-feathers become darker towards the body; the secondaries have the outer edge of an iron blue, which in the hinder ones is reddish. The tail is rather forked, and of a brilliant black, tinged with iron blue. The female is easily distinguished from the male, for what is red on him is reddish grey on her, while her back is of a brownish grey, and her feet are not so black; she is also smaller. This species has some singular varieties; the principal are:-- 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.