114 THE BULL-FINCH A MISCHIEVOUS BIRD. 



that its kind might almost be doubted. The Orleans 

 and green-gage plums next form a treat, and draw their 

 attention from what remains of the cherry. Having 

 banqueted here awhile, they leave our gardens entirely, 

 resorting to the fields and hedges, where the sloe bush 

 in April furnishes them with food. May brings other 

 dainties, and the labors 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 accidentally, 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 

 banquet ; 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 proce- 

 dure, though the tree is prevented from producing fruit, 

 yet the foliage is expanded as usual ; but had the leaves, 

 the lungs of the plant, been indiscriminately consumed, 

 the tree would probably have died, or its summer growth 

 been materially injured : we may thus lose our fruit this 

 year, yet the tree survives, and hope lives, too, that we 

 may be more fortunate the next. The Tartarian honey- 

 suckle (lonicera Tart.) and corchorus Japonicus, when 

 growing in the shrubbery, are very commonly stripped 

 of their bloom by bull-finches : the first incloses many 



