Note 37 — Chapter III · MADEIRA TO CAPE VERDS, WITH A GLANCE AT THE CANARIES.

Two distinct species of finch (Carduelis) appear to have afforded the different varieties of singing bird, familiarly known by this name. The one which is best known in its wild state is the Carduelis canaria of Cuvier, and is very abundant in Madeira, where its characters and habits have been observed with much attention by Dr. Heineken. ‘It builds,’ says this naturalist, ‘in thick, bushy, high shrubs and trees, with roots, moss, feathers, hair, &c.; pairs in February; lays from four to six pale blue eggs; and hatches five, and often six times in the season. It is a delightful songster, with, beyond doubt, much of the nightingale’s and sky-lark’s, but none of the wood-lark’s, song.’—‘A pure wild song from an island canary, at liberty, in full throat, in a part of the country so distant from the haunts of men that it is quite unsophisticated, is unequalled, in its kind, by any thing I have ever heard in the way of bird-music’ The canary-bird was brought into Europe as early as the 16th century, and is supposed to have spread from the coast of Italy, where a vessel, which was bringing to Leghorn a number of these birds, besides its merchandise, was wrecked. As, however, they were males chiefly which were thus introduced, they were for some time scarce; and it is only of late years that their education and the proper mode of treating them have been known.—Brande, 1853.