IN GARDEN, PARK, AND SHRUBBERY. 43 



sound in the shrubberies during early summer ; 

 and his simple twittering song is heard incessantly 

 during the whole time of his residence there. 

 The Greenfinch breeds late, commencing its rustic 

 cradle in May, and rears brood after brood all 

 the summer through. You may find its nest 

 not only amongst the evergreens the yew by 

 preference but in the whitethorn hedge round 

 the garden, and even in the isolated bushes on 

 the lawn and in the park. The nest is made 

 externally of dry grass, moss, and perhaps wool, 

 with a few twigs interwoven round the outside ; and 

 this is most warmly lined with feathers, hair, and 

 wool. The eggs are five or six in number, pure 

 white, spotted and blotched with purplish red and 

 gray. The note of the female at the nesting-place is 

 a musical pl-wee-et. As soon as the grasses in the 

 hay meadows are in seed, flocks of Greenfinches 

 gather there, and there most of their time is spent 

 until the grain begins to ripen. At all seasons, 

 however, the Greenfinch is fond of roosting among 

 the evergreens in the shrubbery. 



Still keeping to the shrubbery, we shall meet 

 with the BULLFINCH (Pyrrhula vitlgaris), one of widely 

 the prettiest of our native birds, easily recognised distributed - 

 by his black head, wings, and tail, gray back, red 

 underparts, and white rump. It also retires by 

 preference to the evergreens to rear its young, 

 although often enough met with elsewhere in the 

 winter months. Fitful are the glimpses that we 

 catch of the Bullfinch during the breeding season; 

 but in early spring it is much more conspicuous, 

 when it visits the fruit-trees, to pull the buds to 

 pieces and vex the soul of the gardener. The 

 song is heard in spring a low, piping strain, 



