Ii8 British Birds, 



funds for the heads of Sparrows, Tom-tits, etc., so has 

 it been, on a lesser scale, with our present birds, and 

 I cannot help thinking sometimes unjustly. No 

 doubt the " Olph " commits sad apparent havock on 

 the blossom-buds ; but I suspect the blossom-buds 

 damaged by him (as it seems) would, many of them, 

 never have come to anything if no Bullfinch had ever 

 been near them. There was a grub in each of them, 

 and that grub would have destroyed the bud quite as 

 effectually, if not quite as summarily, as the bird 

 which extracted it from what was alike its hiding- 

 place and scene of active ravage and consumption.^ 

 Unlike the Ring Dove and Missel Thrush, and a few 

 other birds, which are usually very wild and shy, 

 but at breeding time lay aside their wildness and 

 distrust, and come to the close neighbourhood of 

 human habitations to nest, the Bullfinch, in spring, 

 leaves our gardens and orchards, and resorts to the 

 woods and wilds. The nest is made of twigs and roots 

 and moss, rather loosely constructed, and lined with 

 wool and hair, and is most commonly placed in a good 

 thick bush of considerable height and size ; sometimes 

 on a fir or other tree. The hen-bird lays four or five 

 eggs of a pale greenish blue, streaked and spotted 

 with purple-red, chiefly at the larger end, — Fig. 14, 

 plate IV, 



SCARLET GROSBEAK— (/>;'r^2^/^ erythrind). 

 Quite a casual or accidental visitor. 



1 But see the remarks on this topic in the second vohime of the 

 latest edition of Yaritjli, pp. lb 7, lo8. 



