32 THE HOUSE SPARROW: 



been said that birds take buds to get at grubs or insects 

 in them, which would have destroyed the buds. I beHeve 

 that this is a pure fiction, without any foundation in fact ; 

 at any rate I never met with or heard of a case in which 

 it could be proved, or seemed at all likely. It would be 

 against common sense to suppose that all the buds on a 

 number of bushes held insects except those near the ends 

 of the shoots, and that none of these held one (they 

 always grow well enough). When the birds have been 

 budding the bushes, and the few buds left burst into leaf, 

 besides those at the ends, here and there one does so on 

 the stripped parts, and perhaps nine times out of ten the 

 reason of its being left is plain— the bud contained no 

 flower. Anyone can verify this fact. I have heard it said 

 ' the birds must take the buds for insects, you may find 

 the buds dropped on the ground.' This is a specimen of 

 the slipshod observations and inferences that people too 

 often make. Birds shell the buds, and seem to eat only 

 the part which would form the flowers ; this is most easily 

 proved in bullfinches, for they will come to a garden or 

 orchard and live there exclusively on fruit-buds. I once 

 shot one on a cherry-tree full to the mouth with its buds ; 

 these were nicely shelled to the part which would open 

 into the bunches of flowers, looking something like little 

 cauliflower heads, and showing the little blossom buds. 

 Bullfinches, however, did not do the rapid budding already 

 mentioned ; they are rather scarce here, and come one at 

 a time — sometimes not at all during a whole w-inter — and 

 one or two could not do nearly so much work in the time. 

 We know well enough what they do ; when they come 

 they stop, and are sure to be seen before long. I am un- 

 willingly obliged to make an exception, and allow bull- 

 finches to be shot in the garden in winter ; not in 



