236 EGGS OF BEITISH BIEDS. 



Its nest is built in the fork of a small bush, or amongst climbing 

 plants not far from the ground. It bears little resemblance to 

 the nest of a Finch, and might easily be mistaken for that of a 

 Warbler. It is composed of dry grass-stalks and lined with 

 horsehair. It is rather deep, and very neatly and carefully made, 

 although it is so slender as to be semi-transparent when held up 

 to the light. The inside diameter is two inches and a quarter. 



Five is the usual number of eggs ; but sometimes only four are 

 laid, and occasionally as many as six. They vary in length from 

 0-9 to 0-73 inch, and in breadth from 63 to 0'55 inch. The 

 ground-colour is not so pale as that of the eggs of the Bullfinch ; 

 the spots are also fewer, smaller, and blacker than in typical eggs 

 of the latter species. They are smaller than the eggs of the 

 Bullfinch, and are not likely to be mistaken for the eggs of any 

 other bird. 



THE BULLFINCH. 

 {Pyrrhula vulgaris.) * 



Plate 56, Figs. 6, 7. 



The Bullfinch is found commonly, although more or less locally, 

 in all the wooded portions of Great Britain. It breeds through- 

 out Western Europe, from Germany westwards, and south to the 

 Mediterranean. 



The nest of the Bullfinch can readily be told from that of 

 almost every other British bird. It is a very beautiful structure, 

 the frame- work being almost entirely composed of slender twigs, 

 and is very flat, not unlike a miniature Wood Pigeon's nest. The 

 sticks are very artfully woven and matted together ; and in the 

 middle of this platform of sticks the cup of the nest is formed of 

 fine rootlets projecting above the frame work, making the inside 

 as deep as usual. In some nests a little wool or a feather or two 

 are found. 



The eggs are from four to six in number, greenish blue in 

 ground-colour, spotted and sometimes streaked with dark purplish 

 brown, and with larger and paler blotches of pinkish brown. In 

 some eggs the spots are evenly distributed over the entire surface, 

 but in the majority of specimens they form an irregular zone 

 round the large end. The eggs of the Bullfinch are much bluer 



* Pyrrhula europaa — Saunders, Manual, p. 187; Sharpe, Handb., I., p. 00. 



