234 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



thirty-eight seeds of the spear-plume thistle (Cnicus 

 lanceolatus) in about twenty minutes, though plentifully 

 supplied with hempseed as well, I think we may ask for 

 this much maligned species some little consideration, 

 not only for its natural beauty but for those better 

 traits, which in fairness must be set off against any fail- 

 ings. I have before alluded to the plumage of this 

 bird not unfrequently becoming black, when in confine- 

 ment, from the effects of hempseed; but a curious instance 

 of this strange variation occurring in a wild specimen, 

 is thus recorded by Mr. J. H. Gurney in the " Zoolo- 

 gist" for 1854 (p. 4252) : — " Last autumn a gentleman 

 presented me with a bullfinch entirely black, which had 

 been found of that colour in a nest containing three 

 other young birds, all of the ordinary colour. This bird 

 has subsequently moulted, and in doing so has totally 

 lost its black colouring, and has assumed the ordinary 

 plumage of the female bullfinch." I know of no direct 

 proof of the migration of this species, but the extreme 

 brilliancy of tint in some males netted by our bird- 

 catchers in autumn, suggests rather a continental than 

 an insular origin, like the goldfinches before referred to, 

 which are undoubtedly foreigners. These may, however, 

 be only much older birds, which have acquired, through 

 age, a richer and deeper colouring. The provincial name 

 of "Blood Olph" is commonly applied to the bullfinch 

 in Norfolk, in the same way that " Green Olph" is used 

 to denote the greenfinch, as before stated. 



PYRRHULA ENUCLEATOR (Linnseus). 



PINE GEOSBEAK. 



This rare species has occurred but in very few 

 instances in Norfolk, and the brief records respecting 



