160 SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE. 



author of it on the top of yon cherry-tree. Now he 

 is off. Do you see the white upper tail-coverts as he 

 flies ? You cannot mistake him on the wing. And 

 there goes the hen ; she is much plainer in her 

 attire, but shows the same patch of white when 

 passing from tree to tree. Now let us watch them 

 a little. They are apparently hunting for insects, 

 but, sad to say, they are destroying a great many 

 blossom-buds. Cherries, apples, plums, are all in 

 turn attacked, and it is lamentable to think that a 

 songster of such pleasing exterior is not to be 

 trusted in an orchard. Yet so it is, and those who 

 wish for a good show of fruit must drive away the 

 Bullfinch from the buds ; not, as some thoughtless 

 gardeners do, with a charge of shot, which strips 

 off more buds in a second than a Bullfinch could 

 pick off in an hour, but by means of scarecrows and 

 nets and frequent visits to the trees. In this way 

 you may save your fruit from the destroyer, and 

 still hear his pleasing song. But it is only at a 

 certain period of the year that the Bullfinch can do 

 the damage of which we complain. When the 

 young are in the nest they are fed almost entirely 

 upon insects, chiefly caterpillars ; in autumn the old 



