1574 THE PERCHING BIRDS 



large form wanders about in big droves, sometimes composed exclusively of the male 

 sex. Generally feeding almost entirely on wild seeds, fruit buds, and berries, in severe 



weather the bullfinch devours the seeds of 

 the common plantain. The flight of the 

 bullfinch is generally low and undulating; 

 but at times these birds may be seen 

 flying at a considerable elevation, and alight- 

 ing on the tops of the tallest forest trees. 

 The natural song is feeble and without 

 pretension, not that this species is devoid 

 of musical taste, for the young males, if 

 untrained, essay to sing their natural notes 

 as soon as they are about four weeks old, 

 but rather that the bird stands in need 

 of a tutor, by whose patience its capacity 



THE BUU.FINCH. f r reproducing a lively air may be turned 



to practical account. The Germans be- 

 stow great pains upon the teaching of their tiny pupils, and are content to turn out 

 only a limited number of really accomplished birds. The call note is low and plain- 

 tive, and one of the most familiar of the varied sounds that from time to time 

 break the silence of English woodlands. The plumage is subject to considerable 

 variation, even in a wild state; one of the most remarkable varieties being creamy- 

 dun color, contrasting strongly with the jetty-black crown, wings, and tail. The 

 cock bird sometimes combines a rosy breast with upper parts of snowy whiteness. 

 Typically the adult male is bluish gray above; the crown, wings, and tail being 

 glossy black; the rump white, and conspicuous when the bird is seen upon the 

 wing; and the lower parts pale vermilion, varying much in intensity. The female's 

 breast is chocolate brown. 



Included by some writers among the bullfinches, but by others re- 

 Pine f erred to a distinct genus, the pine grosbeak (Pinicola enudeator), 

 is an inhabitant of the pine woods of the northern regions of both the 

 Eastern and Western Hemispheres. A gorgeously-colored bird in its adult plumage, 

 the pine grosbeak seems to be remarkable for the variation in the time of the as- 

 sumption of this dress; there being little doubt that cock birds have bred while in 

 their immature plumage. The wings are of moderate length; the tail being of me- 

 dium length, and distinctly forked; while the feet are small, and the metatarsus does 

 not exceed the third toe in length. The sexes are easily distinguished by the crimson 

 red plumage of the adult male, although immature cocks cannot thus be distinguished. 

 Mr. Seebohm remarks that the summer home of the pine grosbeak is in a very 

 picturesque country. "Almost all the forest districts of Siberia are hilly, and in 

 the north, as the trees become smaller, they are also more thinly scattered over the 

 ground, and the interminable extent of wood is broken by occasional flat, open 

 marshes, which become gay with flowers as soon as the snow melts. The scenery 

 is more park-like than farther south, and birds are much more plentiful and more 

 easily seen. The pine grosbeaks arrive at their breeding grounds in small flocks 



