FRINGILLID^. 205 



the Common Linnet during its assumption of its 

 spring attire. 



The eggs are of a " pale bluish green ground 

 colour, spotted with orange-brown, principally 

 towards the larger end.* 



BULLFINCH, Pyrrhula vulgaris. This very hand- 

 some, but it must be admitted somewhat mischievous, 

 bird, though resident with us, is not very numerous, 

 partially perhaps owing to its persecution by the 

 gardeners, and partially to the more systematic 

 attacks of the bird-catchers, the Bullfinch being 

 much prized as a cage-bird. 



As the food of this species consists, in a great 

 measure, of buds, it is consequently very destructive 

 both in the garden and in the orchard, where it eagerly 

 devours the buds of the gooseberry, plum, cherry, 

 apple, and, in fact, almost any fruit-bearing tree, not 

 by any means limiting itself, as has often been 

 suggested in its defence, to diseased buds, or those 

 that have some grub or insect in them, but eating 

 up the most healthy and likely to grow. Where the 

 Bullfinches are not numerous perhaps the mischief 

 thus done is not great only a little necessary 

 thinning. The buds of the larch and birch trees, as 

 well as those of the white and black thorns, also fall 

 a prey to this bird ; on the other hand, it consumes 

 a great quantity of the seeds of various weeds, such 



* Yarrell, vol. L, pp. 542, 543. 



