136 THE BULLFINCH 



asleep; but early in the morning, it was he who awak- 

 ened me by a joyous greeting. The bull-finch seemed to 

 invite me to leave my couch, to liglit the fire and to fill 

 ils mangel'. 



In this manner, we spent our winter most pleasantly ; 

 (hen March and its storms and showers melted the snow; 

 tlic first violets, daffodils, and sweet scented wood-ruff 

 ])eepcd out in the garden ; we could now open our win- 

 dow and inhale with lapture the first balmy breezes of 

 spring. 



Spring is the season when in our mountainous regions 

 wild bullfinches begin to fly about in couples. They 

 pair in April and build their nests in hedges. These are 

 made of moss on the outside, of feathers on the inside ; 

 the female lays five or six bluish-white eggs spotted with 

 violet on this soft bed. When the young ones are hatched 

 and sufficiently feathered, the father and mother take 

 them across the country, sometimes to blooming vines, 

 sonietinies to orchards filled with cherries, or else they 

 fly about the skiits of a wood. The whole family leads 

 this sort of vagrant life until the latter end of autumn, 

 picking at ears of corn, devouring the fruit of the sloe- 

 tree, as well as blackberries and dog-wood, disbudding 

 aspen-trees, alders and sorbs ; whistling, calling and 

 answering each other, intoxicating themselves with air 

 and sunshine. 



I do not know whether my bullfinch (a male) had a 



