170



On the Bed-headed Bullfinch.



the horse was stolen, and there was the disconsolate male bullfinch

calling vociferously, and continued to do so for two or three days.

The two were devoted to one another, and I had been looking for¬

ward to their nesting successfully this summer.


Like the British Bullfinch, this species is very tameable, the

male also having a charming merry song, more resembling a Linnet’s

than that of our British bird’s. The call note is loud and double, of

a higher pitch, I think, than the British bullfinch’s, but still having

a family resemblance. It may be due to age that causes the colour

of the male Red-headed Bullfinch to vary in intensity.


Some are only dull orange, others are bright orange-red ; but

much more orange than red, so that I think it misleading to have

named this bird “ Red-headed.” Our British bird is red. To my

eyes, the Himalayan bird is not ! “ Orange-headed Bullfinch” would

have been a moi’e appropriate name.


My male bird moulted out slightly brighter in colour than

when he was first brought from India, but not nearly so vivid as are

some of the skins in the Natural History Museum, in spite of his

diet having consisted all through the summer of fresh chickweed,

groundsel, flowering grrsses, strawberries, etc., and later on of black¬

berries, elder berries, apple, plantain, and so on. Besides which

the birds were often flying loose in the bird-room, with a pan of

fresh water to wash in, which they took every and constant advan¬

tage of.


Gould (Birds of Asia, Yol. 5) writes :—“ This fine species

“ possesses the general characteristics of the common Bullfinch of

“ Europe, except in the form of the tail, which is decidedly forked,

“ while in our bird it is even, and in the colour of the head, which

“ is bright rufous, inclining to scarlet, instead of being black as in

“our native species. The occurrence of this bird in the collections

“ of Europe was formerly so rare that the single specimen belonging

“ to the Andersonian Museum at Glasgow, from which my original

“ figure and description in the Century of Birds were taken, was the

“ only one then known. Shortly afterwards two other examples

“ arrived in England, one of which was deposited in the British

“ Museum, the other in that of the Zoological Society of London,

“and these three were all the specimens then in Europe.”



