40 The Food of Some British Wild Birds. 



plum and damson buds. It is never necessary, however, to shoot 

 it a little stone-throwing, or, better still, catapulting, is quite 

 enough. Shooting at It injures the trees and bushes quite as much 

 as the bullfinches do." That such an opinion is contrary to facts, 

 I hope to prove in the following pages. 



Hooper (68) states: "The Bullfinch, which has been briefly 

 described as not having one redeeming feature save his appearance, 

 seems to be somewhat local, and is probably most plentiful near 

 woods. When numerous in a fruit-growing district, it seems that 

 for self-protection they must be killed, as the damage they do to 

 the buds is a very serious matter, and often they wantonly destroy 

 the buds without even eating them. They commence soon after 

 Christmas, when the first spell of frost has sweetened the swollen 

 buds, and continue eating them until the buds expand into leaves. 

 The worst time is the beginning of March." 



The bullfinch feeds on buds, especially of plants that bear 

 fruit, such as plums, damsons, cherries, gooseberries, currants, 

 apples, and pears ; it shows a special liking for Greengage, Black 

 Diamond, Purple Gage, and Early Rivers Plums, which it will first 

 attack in an orchard. It shows a preference for certain varieties 

 of gooseberries, and amongst apples the buds of ' Councellor ' are 

 favourites. It also attacks the buds of hawthorn, blackthorn, bird- 

 cherry, larch, and beech. Smith (105) says that: "The bullfinches 

 are the most destructive birds the fruit-grower has to contend 

 against. They rove about, in families of five or six, through the 

 winter. A family will come into a fruit tree, and stay there until 

 they have destroyed all the buds both bloom and fruit buds. They 

 usually begin with ' May Duke ' cherries, in the early autumn, and 

 keep on with plums, gooseberries, currants, and medlars ; ending, 

 in late spring, with black currants and apples. For six months 

 they live almost entirely on fruit buds ; the other six months on 

 seeds of various wild plants." 



This, the statement of a careful observer, presents the bullfinch 

 in a rather different, but truer light. 



Archibald (4) states: "Most unfortunately, tkis handsome 

 finch destroys the buds of fruit trees and diminishes the yield to 

 a serious extent. It takes very few insects." 



Newstead (92) in his work on the "Food of some British 

 Birds," writes: "'The serious nature of the havoc which this bird 

 commits in destroying the buds of various fruit trees is so generally 

 known that it would be superfluous to add to the already extensive 

 literature on this subject." 



Testimony from actual fruit-growers is interesting, and from 

 a large number of letters I select the following statements : 



" Are a very serious pest in our orchards, without any redeem- 

 ing feature save their appearance. (A. 327/11). 



