834 



The Sparrow-like Birds 



in winter when it comes southward it frequents parks with evergreens and 

 plantations of mountain-ash trees, where it feeds upon such unfallen berries 

 as can then be found. Coming in small flocks, it is ordinarily very tame and 

 unsuspicious, but soon becomes shy under persecution. It breeds mainly in 

 the high north, placing its lightly constructed nest in a coniferous tree, and 

 in May or June laying three or four eggs, which are greenish blue spotted and 

 splashed with dark brown. 



Bullfinches. Belonging near the last are the so-called Bullfinches (Pyrrhula), 

 which are medium-sized or rather small arboreal Finches of short, thick build, 



very fluffy plumage, and a very short, thick, 

 strikingly arched bill. In color the plumage 

 of the head, wings, and tail is black, the 

 rump and under tail-coverts usually white, 

 while the males of most species have the 

 under parts mostly red. With the excep- 

 tion of a single species (Cassin's Bullfinch 

 P. cassini), which occasionally straggles into 

 Alaska, the several members of this genus 

 are mainly confined to the northern and 

 central portions of Europe and Asia, with 

 one extending to the Philippines, the most 

 familiar being the Bullfinch (P. europcea) of 

 continental and western Europe. This bird 

 is a resident throughout its range and ap- 

 pears to pair for life, the male and female 

 being seen together at all times. They fre- 

 quent woods, groves, gardens, and tangled 

 shrubbery along streams, and "are ordinarily 

 quite tame when not persecuted, but as they 

 are often held in ill repute by gardeners 

 on account of their destruction of buds of fruit and other trees, they may 

 become exceedingly wary. Their food consists largely of seeds, chiefly those 

 of noxious weeds, berries, etc., as well as tender buds, the young being fed 

 on both insects and seeds. The "call and alarm note is a low, piping, 

 musical sound, very pleasing to hear. The male sings in the spring, and so, 

 it is said, does the female; but his strain is short and so feeble that it can 

 be heard only at a distance of a few yards." It is highly prized as a cage 

 bird, and in certain localities appears to be declining in numbers. The nest is 

 placed in a dense holly, a yew tree, or hedge, and is deeply cup-shaped and 

 often lined with hair or wool; the four or five eggs are greenish blue, spotted 

 and blotched with brown of several shades. 



Crossbills. One of the best-marked of the minor groups of Finches is that 

 comprising the Crossbills (Loxia), which, as implied by the name, have the 

 mandibles crossed at the tip, a seeming malformation, but really an admirable 

 adaptation for securing their food of seeds by forcing off the scales from cones 



FIG. 230. Bullfinch, European Pyr- 

 rhula europcBa. 



