72 GRAMINl VOILE. 



finished with small vegetable fibres, with rarely, if ever, any 

 admixture of wool, feathers, or any other animal substance. 

 Indeed, the habits of the bird do not lead it to the places 

 where such substances are to be found. It lives in the 

 shade of the tree, and uses such materials as that shade 

 affords. 



Bull-finches breed rather late in the season, as, though the 

 building of their nest is not a very elaborate matter, it is not 

 begun till the end of April or the beginning of May. The 

 male bird sings at that time ; but his song, though mourn- 

 fully soft, is so low that it is not heard but in the close 

 vicinity ; and the bird is so apt to drop into the bush and be 

 silent, on the least alarm, that to scramble through the trees 

 in order to hear the native note of the bull-finch, is almost 

 the surest way of being disappointed. 



The birds are very much attached to each other and to 

 their young, and it is possible that they pair for life ; but 

 their habits while in the wood are not easily observed or much 

 known ; and when they first quit the shade, they apparently 

 come in families, though even these skulk near each other, 

 rather than associate freely and openly like the flocking 



When the stores of the hedge and the coppice fail, and the 

 weather is severe, the bull-finches resort to the gardens, and 

 commit very considerable ravages upon the fruit-trees, espe- 

 cially the early cherries, plums, and other sorts that Lave 

 their buds in an advanced state, and with a considerable 

 quantity of farinaceous matter accumulated in them. They are 

 equally expert at nipping off the buds, and in separating the 

 hard scales of the hybernacttlum, which are scattered round 

 the root of the tree, and are sometimes the only remains that 

 are left of what promised in the autumn to be a fair or even 

 an abundant crop of fruit. They attack the buds of haw- 

 thorns and many other trees, such as the birch, and even 



