Star.
London, England, 1830-04-16 00:00:00

PIPING BULFINCHES.

Perhaps a short history of the rearing, taming, teaching, and per-
fecting of these birds,previously to their being shipped for " this
of all lands the best," land, will not be uninteresting to a por.
rstion of your numerous ers.
In the month of June the young ones, which are bred wild, are
taken from their nests when about eight days old; they arc brought
up under the auspices of one man, who, by feeding and caressing
them, becomes so much the object of their notice, as to be able to
command and guide them at his will. They are attended by him
until they are about two months old, at which age they first begin
to whistle; they then commence their exercises, and perhaps the
strictest military discipline is not more arduous to the serjeant or
more oppressive to the men, than these exercises are to the bulfinch
and teacher.

In receiving the first rudiments of their musical education they
are taught in classes of about six in number.; they are naturally
great mimics ; the instrument by which they are taught is a barrel.
organ of a single diapason—it only plays the aft—the birds before
they make their first essay are comparatively starred; they are placed
in a dark room round the organ, and the air is played slowly to
them. A hungry mimic will always make the most of the gifts
of nature; when the belly is empty (excuse vulgarism) the wits
are always upon the alert : children cry, dogs howl, and asses
bray, always louder and oftener when they feel the " vulture in
their jaws." It is just so with these little vocalists ; they make a
virtue of necessity ; the moment they mimic the organ the light is
admitted into the room, and a little food is given to them ; and
this is repeated so often, and works upon them so mechanically, that
the organ is to them a sure prmtge of their being fed.
When they have been drilled in this manner for about a month
their old feeder, who is called their " Lehrer," hands them over to
boys, who are employed for the sole purpose of playing to them. Each
boy takes a bird, and during these exercises, or rather rehearsals, they
are occasionally visited, and indeed always fed, by their old teacher,
who, by various motions of the head and mouth, checks or en-
courages them in their piping, according to the degree of perfectibility
with which they pipe: for instance, when they repeat a stave too
often, he scowls and blows upon them ; and when they proceed
correctly he waves his head somewhat like a Chinese figure, or rather
like a " Great Mogul," and testifies his approbation of their endea-
vours. They perfectly understand these motions, but by dint of
perseverance on the part of the teacher, and attention and practice
on theirs, acquire the habit of piping, which never leaves them till
their death. _

It may easily be conceived (mimic even u they are) what a
task it must be to teach them to pipe at all, much less with any per-
fection. According to Cuvier there are in all singing birds five pairs
of constrictor museles—two anterior, two posterior, and two small
longitudinal contractors, two oblique and two transverse; and in
most birds which do not sing there is in general only one pair.
To digress, I am one of those who think that the intellects
of men depend upon the conformation of the pineal gland,
and the propositional and syllogistical canals of the brain,
in the same manner that the vocal powers depend upon the con-
struction of the larynx, or organ of voice—and this hypothesis ap-
• plies even to piping bullfinches, and is confirmed by the fact, that,
though they may all have the same advantages (as far as teaching
goes), and the same power of voice, there are not above five out of
a hundred that pipe correctly. Be this, however, as it may, the
difficulty must be great, even to teach those of the greatest capacity,
and it can only be accomplished by the most unremitting exertions
on the part of their " Lehrer ;" it is not sheer mimicry—it is no
inherent property—neither can it be "an essence," as metaphysi.
clans would say : they are taught, and they acquire piping, in the
same way that a whelp is taught to carry—a boy to behave himself
..and a lawyer to be just—by castigation—by the severest lessons
of experience, and by the stern and uncompromising authority of
their teachers.—Mirror.

A black terrier dog caused great alarm in the neigh-
bourhood of Albany-street, Regent's Park, on Wednesday last, by
snapping at several other dogs, and betraying symptoms of hydro-
phobia. He was, after great alarm and confusion, killed by a po-
liceman. Several instances of this frightful malady have recently
appeared among the canine species in bt. Pancras and Illarylebone
parishes.
As a prof of the effects with which Temperance So-
cieties are beginning to operate on their adherents, it may be men.
tinned that a gentleman in this city has warned away one of his
tenants from a shsp in Saltmarket, for no other reason than that
he retailed ardent spirits. He has also several times refused to
let as a spirit-cellar another shop in the same street belonging to
him; and positively asserts that he will rather have them empty
than prostituted to such bus purposes as selling of
pow Chronicle.