156 THE BULL-FINCH DESTRUCTIVE TO GARDENS. 



dainties, and the labours and business of incubation 

 withdraw them from our observation. 



The idea that has been occasionally entertained, 

 that this bird selects only such buds as contain the 

 embryo of an insect, to feed on it, and thus free 

 us of a latent colony of caterpillars, is certainly 

 not correct. It may confer this benefit acciden- 

 tally, but not with intention. The mischief effected 

 by bull-finches is greater than commonly imagined, 

 and the ground beneath the bush or tree on which 

 they have been feeding, is commonly strewed with 

 the shattered buds, the rejectments of their ban- 

 quet ; and we are thus deprived of a large portion 

 of our best fruits by this assiduous pillager, this 

 " pick-a-bud ," as the gardeners call it, without 

 any redeeming virtues to compensate our loss. A 

 snowy, severe winter makes great havoc with this 

 bird. It feeds much in this season upon the fruit 

 of the dog-rose, " hips," as we call them. When 

 they are gone, it seems to pine for food, and is 

 starved, or perhaps frozen on its roost, as few are 

 observed to survive a long inclement winter. But 

 it is not the buds of our fruit-bearing trees only 

 that these destructive birds seek out ; yet in all 

 instances I think it will be observed, that such 

 buds as produce leaves only are rejected, and those 

 which contain the embryo of the future blossom 

 selected : by this procedure, though the tree is 

 prevented from producing fruit, yet the foliage is 

 expanded as usual ; but had the leaves, the lungs 



