196 BULLFINCH. 



the countries south of the Baltic and west of Central Russia, 

 as far as the northern portions of the Spanish Peninsula, while 

 in Italy it reaches Naples and Sicily; wandering occasionally 

 to several islands in the Mediterranean, and even to Algeria. In 

 the mountainous portions of St. Michael's, one of the Azores, is 

 found P. murinus, a large insular species, in which the sexes are 

 nearly alike in plumage, both of them being of a dull grey without 

 any white on the rump ; a remarkable development, as no connect- 

 ing link is known in the Canaries or in Madeira. 



The unmistakable nest of the Bullfinch is a platform of fine twigs 

 of the birch, beech, fir &c., surmounted by fine roots and a little 

 hair woven into a shallow cup for the eggs. These, laid in the 

 early part of May, are 4-5 in number, of a clear greenish-blue, 

 speckled and streaked with purplish-grey and dark brownish-purple, 

 especially at the larger end : measurements 73 by -55 in. A white- 

 thorn hedge, or a fork near the extremity of a low branch in some 

 leafy tree or evergreen (yew and box being favourites), are among the 

 sites selected. The duties of incubation devolve upon the female. The 

 young are fed partly on insects and their larvK, and partly on seeds 

 softened by the parent ; but later in the year I have seen both old 

 and young birds feeding upon the berries of the rowan-tree, dog- 

 rose, hawthorn &c., while the seeds of such weeds as the dock, 

 thistle, ragweed, groundsel, chickweed and plantain, are largely con- 

 sumed. It is open to doubt whether the Bullfinch's destructiveness 

 to buds in spring may not originate in a search for concealed 

 insects, but in any case a charge of shot fired into the tender branches 

 of a fruit-tree does far more damage than the depredations of the 

 bird. The call-note is a soft ivheoii. 



The adult male has the forehead, lores, throat, and head above 

 the eyes, glossy blue-black ; mantle smoke-grey ; larger wing-coverts 

 black, tipped with white, which forms a conspicuous bar: quills dark 

 ash-colour, with narrow whitish edges to the emarginate portions of 

 the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th ; secondaries glossy blue-black ; rump 

 pure white ; tail glossy blue-black ; cheeks and under parts bright 

 brick-red ; vent white ; bill black ; legs and feet dark brown. 

 Length 6 in. ; wing 3-25 in. The female is of a browner grey on 

 the upper parts, and the under parts are vinous-brown. The young 

 differ from the female in having no black on the head, and the bar 

 on the wing is butfish-white. An entirely black nestling, found with 

 three other young birds of the ordinary colour, attained after 

 moulting the plumage of the female. 



