PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 81 



Period of incubation 14 days (Tiedemann), 15 days (Bouteille, Ornifli. du Dauphine). 

 [F. c. B. J. F. B. K.] 



5. Food. The seeds of larch and fir cones, kernels of berries, fruit, buds, 

 insects. The young are usually fed on regurgitated seeds (Zander, op. tit.). Mac- 

 gillivray implies that both sexes share in this duty. [F. B. K.] 



6. Song Period. Heard usually in the spring, occasionally by moonlight, 

 but generally in the morning (Ussher and Warren, op. cit.). Both sexes sing 

 (Wheelwright in the Zoologist, 1870, p. 2238). [F. B. K.] 



BULLFINCH [P$rrhuia pyrrhula (L.) ; (P. europcea, Vieill.). Bull- 

 spink, bully, bully-blackhead, hoop, oh*, nope, mawp, pope, redhoop, blood - 

 olf, tawny, tony-hoop, black-cap, monk, coal-hood, plum-bird, thickbill, 

 bud-picker, alph, alp. French, bouvreuil ; German, Gemeiner or Kleiner 

 Dompfaff or Gimpd ; Italian, ciuffolotto]. 



1. Description. Recognised by its black hood, portly red (rose-vermilion) 

 breast, and in flight by the white rump which contrasts with the violet-black tail 

 and grey mantle. Length 6 in. [152 mm.]. (PI. 16.) The hen differs in having the 

 mantle sepia-brown and the underparts vinous-brown. The young differ from the 

 hen in having no black on the head, the whole of the upper parts, except the white 

 rump, grey tinged with brown, the underparts pale brown, and the wing coverts 

 tipped with buff instead of grey. [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. Our local race of this bird, P. pyrrhula pileata, Macgillivray, 

 is confined to the British Isles, where it is sedentary, but other subspecies are 

 found on the Continent ; Scandinavia, Russia, North-East Germany, Hungary, 

 and West Siberia being inhabited by the northern race, while the southern form is 

 found in Middle and Western Europe from North Spain and North Italy to West 

 Prussia, and a third race is found in the Caucasus. The British form is tolerably 

 common in all wooded parts of the British Isles, but though increasing its range 

 is not yet known to have bred in Orkney, Shetland, or the Outer Hebrides, though 

 it occurs in Skye and has nested in Eigg, Mull, Islay, Jura. In Ireland it is 

 commoner than in the middle of the last century (Ussher and Warren, B. of Ireland, 

 p. 68). [F. c. E. J.] 



3. Migration. The northern race occurs occasionally on migration on our east 

 coast (Yorkshire), but otherwise there is little or no evidence of anything more than 

 occasional local movements on the part of our resident birds. [A. L. T.] 



L 



