]22 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 



cherry, and Siberian crab so entirely stripped of their 

 buds year by year, that I cannot conceive such to be the 

 case, or other branches of the same trees which were not 

 so denuded would certainly show more traces of the 

 ravages of the grub than they have done. I have 

 watched them in a Siberian crabtree in my own garden, 

 which stood about three yards from the window, and I 

 feel convinced that they eat most of the buds they pick 

 off ; for the ground under this tree only showed one here 

 and there which the birds had let fall. 



The bullfinch is a permanent resident in the district. 

 In spring it is only met with in pairs ; in autumn and 

 winter it associates in small parties of five or six in 

 number, mo^t probably the members of one brood. In 

 winter it chiefly frequents the fields of stubble for seeds, 

 and I have often met with it in hawthorn hedges feeding 

 on the haws, to which it is very partial. 



Mr. Morris, in his British Birds, conceives that the 

 name bullfinch is a " corruption of budfinch, the word 

 bud being pronounced in the vulgate of the north of 

 England as if spelled 'bood;'" but surely this is a 

 forced conjecture ; is it not rather derived from the 

 thick rounded form of its head and body, and its short 

 neck ? The word bull is used in many compound words to 

 express largeness and roundness, as " bullfaced/' having 

 a large face ; " bulltrout," a large kind of trout ; " bull- 

 rush," a large rush. This is the sense in which I have 

 always been accustomed to consider the word, and have 

 thought it very expressive. 



