The Bullfinch 57 



Family— FRINGILLID.^. Subfamily— FRINGILLIN.^. 



The Bullfinch. 



Py})hula curopaa, ViEILL. 



DR. SHARPB gives the distributiou of this species as follows: — "Western, 

 Central, and Southern Europe. The eastern range is undefined, but it 

 apparently ranges as far as Central Russia." The larger race known to 

 aviculturists as " Russian Bullfinch " is regarded b}- the Doctor as a distinct 

 species, which he calls " Fyrrhula pyrrhulay I must say I do not approve of 

 this adoption of the generic name for the species, and should prefer to follow 

 Brehm in calling it Pyyyhula niajoy : it occurs in Northern and Eastern Europe, 

 and in vSiberia. Of late years a good many examples of the larger northern race 

 have visited the Shetland Islands, and in 1894 two were obtained in Yorkshire. 



The Bullfinch, or Bloodolf, as it is called in Norfolk, is pretty generally 

 distributed in all well-wooded districts throughout the British Isles. 



The male bird has the upper part of the head to below the e3'e and back- 

 ward to the nape, as well as the chin, glossy blue-black ; the mantle and back 

 bluish ash-grey ; the rump white ; the larger wing-coverts black, broadly tipped 

 with white ; flights and tail black, but the primaries somewhat ashy on the inner 

 webs and the second to the fifth with narrow whitish border to the emarginate 

 portions : the outer web of the innermost secondary largely suffused with red : 

 the sides of the face, neck, and under surface bright salmon-red, the vent and 

 under tail-coverts white ; beak, black ; feet dark brown, changing to flesh colour 

 in confinement ; iris brown. The female is slightly duller in colouring on the 

 upper parts, and the whole of the red is replaced by soft Dove-brown. The young 

 most nearly resemble the female, but have no black on the head, and a sordid 

 white wing-bar. 



It has often been said that feeding entirely on hemp in confinement has the effect 

 of rendering the plumage black, just as that of the Canary is altered to orange- 

 vermilion by extensive cayenne feeding : if this were true to call black Bullfinches 

 rare feathered varieties (as is sometimes done at bird shows) would be absurd : 

 as a matter of fact the assertion is probably based largely upon a guess at the 



Vol. n. O 



