104 BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS. 



of fine grasses, circularly disposed, and forming a bed about 

 two inches thick, with a lining of grouse feathers and those 

 of other birds. The eggs are four or five in number, large, 

 greyish, arid spotted with numerous pale-blue and brown 

 spots/' 



THE COMMON BULLFINCH. PyrrJtula vufyaris.This 

 beautiful bird is generally distributed over our islands, but 

 is nowhere very abundant. It is often destroyed on ac- 

 count of the injury which it does in gardens. Few, if any, 

 birds are capable of stronger attachments than the Bullfinch, 

 We well remember two which were kept for some time in 

 the home of our boyhood. One accidentally escaped, but 

 it had already become so tame that it was retaken from a 

 hedge with the hand. The plaintive and continued cry 

 raised by these birds whenever their kind owners left the 

 apartment, led to their enfranchisement; but to the astonish- 

 ment of us all, they both voluntarily returned in a little time 

 to the scene of their captivity. One of these would sit upon 

 the shoulder of its mistress and utter its soft and pleasant 

 song with perfect confidence and delight. (PL IX. fig. 60.) 



The Bullfinch builds its nest in dense thickets, on the 

 flat branches of the spruce-pine or silver-fir, or on the lower 

 branches of some evergreen tree. Small sticks and roots 



