54 BRITISH BIRDS. 
species by having the markings smaller, and generally of a much richer 
brown, almost black; they have also more gloss upon them. The eggs 
of the Common Bullfinch vary from °85 to ‘7 inch im length, and from 
‘6 to ‘55 inch in breadth. 
During the hatching-season the Bullfinches are very quiet; the female 
alone appears to sit upon the nest, and is so tame at this period, or rather 
so unwilling to move, that she will often allow the observer to approach 
her within a few feet ere she quits her charge. It is not improbable that 
the Bullfinch rears two broods in the season; for eggs of this bird may be 
found as late as the end of June and beginning of July. The young are 
tended for some considerable time after they leave the nest, and, in some 
instances at least, remain with their parents throughout the autumn and 
winter. 
The food of the Bullfinch is almost exclusively composed of vegetable 
substances—fruits and berries and various kinds of seeds. It does not, 
however, live exclusively on these, and in summer will feed on small 
insects. Dixon has the following note on this subject :—“I have seen a 
Bullfinch in July, a time of the year when it is unusually shy and retiring, 
hovering above the tall plants near a stream in the secluded corner of a 
shrubbery, catching insects just like a Flycatcher. It was a female bird, 
and had a nest close at hand in a dense yew tree. It also repeatedly en- 
deavoured to alight on some large fern-leaves, which always bent 
under its weight, as if seeking for the various insects that infest such 
situations. The Greenfinch will also feed in a precisely similar manner. 
It is also hard to believe that the young of this bird are reared on any 
other food but insects, and doubtless many kinds of larvee are captured for 
this purpose.” For the greater part of the year, however, the Bullfinch 
feeds on the seeds of the most noxious plants and rank grasses. It will eat 
those of the dock, the nettle, the groundsel, chickweed, thistle, and a host 
of others, whilst its love for berries is none the less, and it eagerly feeds 
on those of the wild rose, the hawthorn, the privet, the elder, and some 
others. The Bullfinch is also fond of other fare, and its love for the 
tender buds of fruit-trees too often lures it to destruction. It is seldom 
respected by the gardener, who, in shooting it down, makes bad worse, 
and does more damage in one discharge of his gun than a host of Bull- 
finches would in a week. Early in the year the bird may often be seen on 
the branches of cherry-, plum-, apple-, and pear-trees, or on the twigs of the 
gooseberry and currant-bushes, and the ground is strewed with the cases of 
the buds, marking out its course. Singularly enough the bird confines its 
attentions to the flower-buds, those producing leaves being passed by. 'This 
destructive habit of the Bullfinch cannot be defended or excused; but 
further research may prove that the bird is, after all, a real benefactor to 
the tree from which it levies such a costly tribute. At this season of the 
