BULLFINCH 



573 



to the greater wing-coverts, a white abdomen, and, very generally, a 

 rose-vermilion outer web to the innermost secondary quill. With the 

 exception of a slight tinge on the last-mentioned feather, the hen is 

 devoid of the rose-vermilion of her partner, while the grey of the upper- 

 parts is mingled with brown, and the under-parts are mauve-coloured. 

 Young birds further lack the black cap to the head, and have the wing- 

 bar ochery, and the under surface lighter, with a tinge of yellow. 



Western and south-western Europe is the home of the bullfinch, 

 which is replaced in Scandinavia and eastern Europe by the closely 

 allied but somewhat larger Russian bullfinch, the type of the Loxia 

 pyrrJiula of the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus. Needless to say, the 

 bullfinch is a resident and common 

 (much too common for fruit-growers) 

 species throughout the mainlands of 

 the British Islands. In the Outer 

 Hebrides it has occurred at least 

 once ; and there was one record 

 each for the Orkneys and Shetlands 

 in the nineteenth century, but a 

 second occurrence in Shetland was 

 noted in 1902. The British bull- 

 finch has been separated from the 

 ordinary continental (as distinct 

 from the Scandinavian) bird as P. 

 europcBa pileata on account of its 

 smaller size and darker colour. 



The bullfinch, especially in cap- 

 tivity, displays a marked tendency to 

 melanism, several wholly black wild 

 specimens having been recorded. 



The inveterate propensity to pick out the buds of gooseberry and 

 currant bushes in winter or spring (no matter whether they are sound 

 or infested with grubs) is deservedly detested by gardeners, who would 

 willingly forego such enjoyment as can be derived from the song of 

 the cock if the species were exterminated. Twigs externally, and the 

 main structure of small roots characterise the neatly built nest of the 

 bullfinch, which at the proper season contains from four to half-a-dozen 

 pretty blue eggs heavily spotted at the larger end with rusty spots, 

 and likewise bearing superficial purplish-brown blotches and spots. 



Although many reputed occurrences in the British Isles of the circum- 

 polar pine-grosbeak, or pine-finch, Piiiocola (or Pyrrhnltx) eiiucleator, have 



yOUNTEO IN THE ROWL 



RO STUDIOS 



BULLFINXII. 



