334 PYRRHULA 



head, and the upper parts are browner, the under parts are tinged with 

 warm ochreous, and the larger wing-coverts are tipped with warm brownish 

 ochreons. 



Hob. Continental and western Europe ; Great Britain and 

 Ireland ; a rare visitor to N. Africa. 



Like its northern and eastern congener it is a resident 

 throughout its range, but in the winter season it wanders 

 about the country in search of food. It frequents woods, groves, 

 and gardens, is lively and cheerful in its general habits, active 

 and agile when on trees or bushes, but heavy and awkward on 

 the ground, and its flight is swift and undulating. Its call-note 

 is a soft, plaintive hoop, hoop, or dyou, dyou, and its song, though 

 mellow, lacks variety and power. It feeds on seeds, chiefly 

 those of noxious weeds, berries, &c., and to a small extent also 

 on tender buds, but the young are fed both on seeds and on 

 insects and their larvae. 



Nidification commences early in May, and the nest, which is 

 placed on a bush or tree, usually not high above the ground, is 

 built of thin dry twigs, fine roots and sometimes leaves, and the 

 cup, which is very neatly formed, is carefully lined with fine 

 roots, and less frequently with hair or wool. The eggs, 4 to 5 

 in number, are pale greenish blue, somewhat sparingly marked, 

 chiefly at the larger end, with pale purplish red or violet-grey 

 shell-blotches, and dull red or reddish brown surface- spots, and 

 measure about 0*74 by 0'55. 



487. SUBSP. PYRRHULA MAJOR. 



Pyrrhula major, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 252 (1831) ; Dresser, iv. 

 p. 97, pi. 198 ; Gould, B. of Asia, iv. pi. 38 ; Loxia pyrrhula, Linn. 

 Syst. Nat. i. p. 300 (1766) ; (Sharpe), Cat. B. Br. Mus. xii. p. 446. 



Dompap, Dan. and Norw. ; Domherre, Swed. ; Punatulkku- 

 Leivonen, Finn. ; Snyargir, Russ. 



$ ad. (Russia). Crown, nape, space round the eye, and a narrow space 

 round the base of the bill purplish black ; upper parts bluish ash, the 

 rump white ; wings, upper tail-coverts and tail glossy purplish black ; the 

 innermost secondary with the outer web nearly all red ; larger wing-coverts 

 tipped with ashy grey ; under parts rich vermilion red, the lower abdomen 

 and under tail-coverts white ; bill black ; legs and iris dark brown. 

 Culmen - 45, wing 3'8, tail 3*1, tarsus 0'8 inch. The female has the head, 

 wings, and tail not so glossy black, the upper parts ashy brown, the under 

 parts warm brown, with a faint vinous tinge, the outer web of the inner 

 secondary reddish grey, and the bill paler at the base. 



