248 The Scottish Naturalist. 



destroyed having been affected with caterpillars, and so pre- 

 vented their spreading, leaving the buds that remained to perfect 

 their fruit in security." In corroboration of this, I quote the 

 following from a correspondent in the 'Journal of Horticulture,' 

 vol. iii. p. 15 : "In the spring of 1857, living in a part of the 

 country where Bullfinches abounded, on looking over some 

 dwarf standard apple-trees on a certain Monday morning, I 

 found the ground strewed with their buds, the Bullies having 

 taken advantage of the previous Sunday, when all was quiet, to 

 commit their work of havoc ; one tree in particular was so di- 

 vested of its buds, that I considered it ruined for the season. 

 Business called me away for some time, and I did not return till 

 the autumn of the same year, when, on examining my little trees, 

 to my amazement I discovered that those which had been at- 

 tacked by the Bullfinches were loaded with fruit, especially the 

 one which was apparently stripped of all its buds, — so much so, 

 that the branches had to be propped, and nearly three dozen fine 

 fruit were gathered off it." Another article of the same nature 

 appears in the * Cottage Gardener Magazine' for January 21, 

 i860, p. 277, by Mr P. B. Brent; but the trees operated upon 

 on this occasion by the Bullfinches, and disbudded, were plums, 

 cherries, and gooseberries, which appeared completely destroyed 

 by them, to the great despair of the owner; but in the following 

 summer they bore large crops of fruit. I have thought it right 

 to bring these instances prominently forward, there being in the 

 present day so inveterate a prejudice in many parts against these 

 l)eautiful birds, that if the war of extermination goes on much 

 longer, they will be shortly lost to us altogether. In some of the 

 upper parts of the district, in the larch forests about Dunkeld, I 

 am glad to say the Bullfinch still holds its own ; and long may it 

 do so. 



PiNicoLA ENUCLEATOR, Gould. (Pine Grosbeak.) 



I should not have mentioned this bird here had not Mr Horn, 

 in his paper referred to, given me as an authority for^ its appear- 

 ance at Dunkeld, and my mentioning it at all was by way of 

 throwing out a mere suspicion that certain birds I had seen were 

 possibly the Pine-Grosbeak. Not having been able to obtain a 

 specimen, the mere fact of seeing what appeared to me to be 

 the bird would be of no value. However, having since become 

 well acquainted with it, or the closely alHed species, in Nova 

 Scotia, I have little doubt but that the birds in question were 



