186 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



stance, is no less explicit. "The idea," he says, 

 " 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 bullfinches is 

 greater than commonly imagined, and the ground 

 beneath the bush or tree on which they have been 

 feeding is commonly strewed with 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, arid is 

 starved, or perhaps frozen on its roost, as few are 

 observed to survive a long inclement winter*." 



* Journal of a Naturalist, p. 157, 3d edit. 



