THE FINCH FAMILY. 77 



cases where his rival has been persistently noticed, 

 he has been known to pine and die. 



If the bullfinch would but confine himself to the 

 woods, fields, and hedgerows, where, except for 

 hawks and bird-catchers, he is safe, all would be 

 well w r ith him ; but his favourite place of resort is 

 the garden, and that just at a time when the fruit- 

 trees are beginning to bud. 



It is nonsense to assert, as some have done in 

 works on birds, that the buds of which bullfinches 

 and other birds make such havoc have insects in 

 them. It is romancing; garden trees, fruit-trees 

 especially, are tended with the greatest care. No 

 insects are allowed to gather on any of the leaves,, 

 either outside or in. The care taken with them 

 is carried to such an extent that I have known men 

 employed in conservatories for weeks in sponging 

 each individual orange and lemon leaf. 



The outside trees, especially the plum and cherry, 

 receive the same care, though in a different way. 

 These are the trees to which the bullfinch pays his 

 most unwelcome attentions. Not satisfied with the 

 buds of the wild cherry and the plum to be found in 

 the hedgerows, he deliberately seeks those of the 



