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