2 SCARLET BULLFINCH. 



Specific Characters. — Rump red or ash-coloured; abdomen pure white. 

 The first primary equal in length to the third, and shorter than the second. 

 Length five inches and a half; carpus to tip three inches and a half; 

 expanse of wing ten to eleven inches; the closed wing reaches to tv/o 

 inches and a half of the length of the tail; tarsus nine to ten lines; 

 middle toe seven lines, and its claw three lines; hinder toe four lines, and 

 its claw three lines. — Naumann. 



The BuUfinclies are a beautiful race of birds, and how much soever 

 our own British species is valued for this quality in our eyes, it is 

 perhaps surpassed by the subjects of the present and following notice, 

 which have however been placed by Kaup and modern writers in the 

 genus Carpodacus, a small group of birds characterized, according to 

 the late Mr. Blyth, by having the bill midway between the true 

 Bullfinches and the Linnets, and the males by being more or less tinged 

 with rosy and becoming crimson in the breeding plumage. The 

 females are streaked with brown, and have no yellow in their plumage. 



The Scarlet Bullfinch inhabits the regions of the arctic circle, in 

 the north of Europe and Asia. It is found in Sweden, Norway, 

 Finland, Russia, and Siberia, more particularly near the Rivers Volga, 

 Samara, Oder, and Selenga. It occurs solitarily in Courland and in 

 Poland; and Naumann especially mentions having found it in the 

 summer of 1816, on Sylt, one of the islands on the west coatt of 

 Jutland. It occurs accidentally in France, Belgium, Switzerland, 

 Italy, and Central Germany, and has been captured at Hesse, on the 

 Rhine. Dea^land mentions that individuals have been shot at Abbe- 

 ville, at Tournai, in the neighbourhood of Milan, and on the Swiss 

 Alps; and Nordmann tells us, in the "Faune Pontique," that it 

 comes regularly in spring into the Botanic Gardens at Odessa, either 

 singly or in pairs, and that it is common in the provinces situated 

 to the east of the Black Sea. It is mentioned by Count Milhle as 

 occurring in Greece, under the name of Pyrrhula sinaica. It occurs 

 in India and China. 



During the summer it is essentially a northern bird, but in the 

 autumn it migrates southwards. If it stays the winter, it is found 

 more especially in the neighbourhood of dwellings, where it can be 

 sheltered among the shrubs. It is very fond of moist situations, and 

 is frequently found among the bushes on the banks of rivers, lakes, 

 and ponds, where it may be seen on the willows or reeds. 



In the ''Richesses Ornithologiques du Midi cle la France," by 

 Jaubert and Barthelemy la Pommeraye, there is a very interesting 

 description of this bird, which is an occasional straggler into France, 



