96 THE BIRDS OF OXFORDSHIRE. 



Banbury list. It is quite possible that it may have occurred 

 in winter, but I have never met with it, nor have I heard of 

 any instance of its being* procured in the county, and it is 

 a bird which would not easily be overlooked by any one 

 acquainted with its note and appearance.] 



THE BULIiFINCH. ^ 



Pi/rrhula europcea. 



The Bullfinch is a resident, seen commonly about the 

 tall hedgerows in winter, and in spring in gardens, but 

 retiring to the woods and spinneys during the breeding 

 season. At that time of the year therefore they are seldom 

 observed, as they always choose the most secluded spots. In 

 1886, however, a pair, forsaking their usual habits, nested in 

 a thick belt of yew trees which border a much frequented 

 path in Mr. F. C. Aplin^s garden at Bodicote, within a dozen 

 yards of the house. In some years the number of our resident 

 Bullfinches is augmented by an influx of strangers. This 

 was the case in October and November, 1880, when many 

 were caught by the bird-catchers about Headington (H. A. 

 Macpherson, MS.), and in the winter of 1884-5 when they 

 were unusually abundant about Great Bourton, and numbers 

 were taken by the bat-fowlers. Again, in October, 1887, Mr. 

 W. Warde Fowler met with ^a little pack of Bullfinches, 

 ten or twelve/ a circumstance which had only come under his 

 notice once before {in lit.). At the end of December, 1888, 

 I observed a little flock of about a dozen Bullfinches, chiefly 

 males, in this parish. A very beautiful male Bullfinch 

 in my possession was taken at Great Bourton on the 27th 

 November, 1884. In this specimen the rose colour of the 

 breast reappears in the form of a narrow edging to each grey 

 feather of the mantle, producing a most beautiful appearance 

 when the bird was fresh and before the tints had faded, 

 as they always do in preserved specimens of this species. 



