of the brook,
Hope's gentle gem, the sweet 'Forget-me-not.'"

[Illustration: GOLDFINCH.]

As we crossed the road we met two men with cage-traps, and a slender
twig covered thickly with bird-lime. In each cage-trap was a tame
goldfinch, which were the decoy birds. The men had only succeeded in
taking one goldfinch--for which they asked half a crown. The decoy
birds attract other goldfinches by their call-note; these sometimes
alight on the trap, which instantly closes upon them; sometimes they
alight on the twig smeared with bird-lime, which is so sticky that
they cannot free themselves from it. "Gay plumage, lively habits, an
agreeable form and song, with a disposition to become attached to
those who feed them, are such strong recommendations, that the
goldfinch has been, and will probably continue to be, one of the most
general cage favourites. So well also do the birds of this species
bear confinement, that they have been known to live ten years in
captivity, continuing in song the greater part of each year. This
tendency to sing and call make them valuable as brace-birds,
decoy-birds, and call-birds, to be used by the birdcatcher with his
ground nets, while the facility with which others are captured, the
numbers to be obtained, and the constant demand for them by the
public, render the goldfinch one of the most important species
included within the bird-dealer's traffic."

Mr. Mayhew says that a goldfinch has been known to exist twenty-three
years in a cage. The same person tells us that goldfinches are sold in
the streets of London from sixpence to a shilling each, and when there
is an extra catch, and the shops are fully stocked, at threepence and
fourpence each. Only think, it is computed that as many as 70,000 song
birds are captured every year about London; the street sale of the
goldfinch being about a tenth of the whole. Goldfinches may be taught
to perform many amusing tricks, to draw up water for themselves by a
small thimble-sized bucket, or to raise the lid of a small box to
obtain the seed within. A goldfinch has been trained to appear dead;
it could be held up by the tail or claw without exhibiting any signs
of life, or to stand on its head with its claws in the air, or to
imitate a Dutch milk-maid going to market with pails on its shoulders,
or to appear as a soldier, keeping guard as sentinel. One was once
trained to act as a cannoneer with a cap on its head, a firelock on
its shoulder, and a