OllUKR PASSEllES. 313 



end. Besides the buds of trees, on which these birds feed, 

 they take also in summer grain and berries ; and as has been 

 said, sometimes insects. Some of them migrate, but others 

 remain during the winter, and then approach nearer to human 

 habitations. They live five or six years. 



The natural note of this species is by no means interest- 

 ing ; but when caged, its powers of acquiring distinct tunes 

 is very surprising. It may be brought also to articulate 

 words, and the female is equally capable of these acquirements 

 with the male. They shew also more attachment than other 

 small birds in general, and can distinguish strangers from 

 those who take care of them. 



This species, which possesses many pleasing qualities in 

 a confined state, is very destructive in a state of nature, by 

 feeding on the buds of fruit-trees, especially pears, apples, 

 and plums. They appear to associate in families of the 

 parents and their young of the same season, an association 

 not determined by the approach of winter, but which con- 

 tinues until the ensuing spring, when the young pair and 

 breed. A woody country, in the vicinity of hills, is their 

 favourite resort. They are most usually seen on the upper 

 branches of trees ; but should a hawk or any thing else 

 alarm them, they descend rapidly into the middle of the 

 thickest bush at hand, and remain there without uttering the 

 slightest noise. In spring, on the contrary, when the family 

 disperses, and the young males select their mates, they are no 

 longer to be found on the tops of trees, but concealed in the 

 thickest bushes, where they would escape all observation, but 

 for the continual call they make use of to one another. The 

 lateness in the season, compared with other birds, of the breed- 

 ing time of the bulfinch is remarkable ; but even this circum- 

 stance, trifling and unimportant as it may seem, of their eco- 

 nomy is not without a substantial cause. The young are fed, 

 in all probability, on grain, to the exclusion of insect and 



