28 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Family FRINGILLID^. Genus I'YRRHULA. 



Sub-family FR1NGILL1NA?. 



BULLFINCH. 



PYRRHULA VULGARIS, Temminck. 



Double Brooded. Laying season, April to June, and 

 even July. 



BRITISH BREEDING AREA : Breeds more or less 

 abundantly in all suitable localities throughout the 

 British mainland, becoming rarer and more local in 

 Scotland and Ireland. There can be no doubt whatever 

 that the bird-catcher has well-nigh exterminated this 

 species from many districts where it formerly bred in 

 considerable numbers. 



BREEDING HABITS : The Bullfinch mates for life, and 

 all through the year may be seen in pairs, although the 

 old nest is not used season by season, neither, in many 

 cases, is the same locality selected. Like many other 

 birds that lead a nomadic life during winter, the Bullfinch 

 appears to breed in any suitable district it may chance 

 to be in when the time for that event arrives. Like the 

 preceding species the Bullfinch becomes very silent, shy, 

 and retiring in its habits during the season of reproduc- 

 tion, and the love-song of the male generally ceases as 

 soon as the eggs are laid. The chief breeding-haunts 

 of the Bullfinch are plantations of firs, shrubberies, 

 orchards, and dense hedgerows and thickets. The nest 

 is built usually from six to ten or fifteen feet from the 

 ground, in a fork of the branches, or on a flat branch at 

 some distance from the trunk. Externally it is com- 

 posed of fine twigs intricately interlaced, forming a flat 

 structure, in the centre of which the cup for the eggs is 

 made of roots and hair, and occasionally one or two 

 feathers, or a scrap of wool. During the period of in- 



