Richard Collins: The practice of capturing songbirds

Trapping songbirds was common in Ireland until it was outlawed under the 1976 Wildlife Act

Both Queen Victoria and Tsar Nicholas II had
singing bullfinches.

I visited rural Vietnam some years ago. The countryside north of Hanoi was so intensively farmed that there were very few birds. But occasionally birdsong could be heard. Closer inspection revealed its source; tiny cages attached to the sides of the little farm dwellings which dotted the landscape. People missed hearing the singing so much, they resorted to capturing and imprisoning singers.

Vietnamese farmers are not alone in adopting extreme measures. Foresters in the Vogelsberg region of Germany often took young bullfinches from their nests and hand-rear them. Tunes were played repeatedly on flutes and whistles until the captive chicks learned to mimic them.