206 BIRDS OP SOMERSETSHIRE. 



as groundsel, thistle, plantain, dock and chick-weed ; 

 herries and the seeds of the fir-tree* and black- 

 berries f may also he added to the list of food. 



In confinement the Bullfinch feeds upon canary 

 and rape and hemp-seed : I believe too much of the 

 latter is not good for it. It also shows an especial 

 partiality for the seeds of all the weeds above- 

 mentioned, and almost any other weed that can be 

 given to it : if, however, a branch of an apple-tree or 

 some other fruit-tree be given it, it very soon begins 

 to work the buds. 



The nest is usually placed in a thick bush or in 

 the branches of a fir-tree, not very far above the 

 ground : it is formed of small twigs, and lined with 

 fibrous roots. 



The adult male Bullfinch is a fine handsome bird. 

 The beak is black ; the irides dark brown ; all round 

 the base of the beak, the head and higher part of the 

 nape are velvet-black ; back and scapulars bluish 

 grey ; rump white ; tail- coverts black, glossed with 

 blue ; lesser wing-coverts greyish, but darker than 

 the back; the greater wing-coverts black, glossed 

 with blue and tipped with greyish white, making a 

 conspicuous bar of that colour across the wing ; all 

 the quills are black, but some of them, especially the 

 tertials, are glossed with blue ; tail the same ; throat, 



* Meyer, vol. iii. p. 159. 



t 'Zoologist' for 1867 (Second Series, p. 685). 



