BULLFINCH 143 



colour of our bird. The beauty of such a tint as that of the bullfinch 

 can be best appreciated where, indeed, it is most commonly seen, 

 amidst the verdure of clustering leaves ; for greens and reds, pleas- 

 ing in themselves, ever make the most agreeable contrasts among 

 colours. 



In its figure, too, this bird is very singular among the finches : 

 his curiously arched beak gives him the look of a diminutive hawk 

 in a gay plumage. 



The bullfinch is greatly persecuted by gardeners on account of 

 the mischief he is supposed to do, for he has the habit of feeding on 

 the flower-buds of fruit-trees in winter and spring. On the other 

 hand, he is greatly esteemed as a cage-bird, and the bird-catchers 

 are ever on the watch for it. But the effect in both cases is pretty 

 much the same, since the hatred that slays and the love that makes 

 captive are equally disastrous to the -species. There is no doubt that 

 it is diminishing in this country, and that it is now a rare bird in 

 most districts. Fortunately, it has a wide distribution in Great 

 Britain : in Ireland, where it is said to be rare, I have found it not 

 uncommon, and tamer than in England. It may be increasing there, 

 which would not be strange in a country where even the magpie is 

 permitted to exist, and birds generally are regarded with kindlier 

 Seelings than in this country. 



The bullfinch does not often go to the ground to feed ; he gets 

 most of his food on trees and bushes insects, buds, fruit, and seeds 

 of various kinds. He inhabits woods, plantations, and thickets, and 

 is often seen in thick hedges and in the tangled vegetation growing 

 by the side of streams. Where he is not persecuted he is a tame 

 and rather sedentary bird, and will allow a person to approach 

 within a dozen yards before leaving his perch. His call and alarm 

 note is a low, piping, musical sound, very pleasant 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. 



The nest is built during the last half of April in a holly or yew, 

 or other dense, dark bush or tree, or in a thick hedge. It is unlike 

 the nest of any other finch, being outwardly a platform-shaped 

 structure made of interwoven twigs, with a cup-shaped nest in the 

 centre, formed of fine rootlets, the rim of the cup projecting above 

 the platform it is built on. The eggs are four to six, greenish blue 

 in ground-colour, spotted and sometimes streaked with dark purplish 

 brown, and blotched with pinkish brown. 



