THE PINE BULLFINCH. 275 



from plantations or shelter of any kind at the edge of Belfast bay, 

 a short distance from the town. The attraction was seeds, of 

 which those of the tree-primrose ((Enothera) seemed to be pre- 

 ferred. The birds were very tame in all kinds of weather, but, as 

 may be supposed, more particularly so during frost. Mr. Poole 

 mentions the food of the bullfinch as consisting, in winter, of a 

 variety of buds, of which those of the larch are much eaten, — in 

 autumn, of the seeds of ragweeds (Senecio Jacobaa), &c. Small 

 seeds were the only food in the stomachs of a few bullfinches 

 which came under my observation in winter — they contained frag- 

 ments of stone. 



Mr. Selby* and Mr. Knapp give very interesting accounts of 

 the bullfinch from personal observation, and particularly with 

 reference to the plants which it attacks. 



Different species of birds have, in the course of these pages, 

 been mentioned, as occasionally becoming black. The bullfinch, 

 when caged and fed much on hemp-seed, is particularly liable to 

 become so. Many years ago at Edenderry, near Belfast, where a 

 pair of bullfinches had been for some time kept, the male died, 

 and the female, whose grief for his loss was very evident, soon 

 afterwards moulted and assumed a full garb of black. Such being 

 considered equivalent to the widow's " weeds/' was looked upon 

 as almost supernatural : and more particularly so, when after a 

 year of mourning she, at moulting time, threw them partially 

 off, and exhibited some white feathers in her wings. I have known 

 a piping bullfinch to be kept about twenty years, and at the ex- 

 piration of that time to be in as good health as ever. Its age 

 when purchased was not remembered. 



THE PINE BULLFINCH. 



Pyrrhula enucleator, Linn, (sp.) 



Loxia „ „ 



Has, according to the following brief testimony, been once 



obtained. 



In the manuscript journal of that eminent naturalist, John Tem- 



* In Illustrations of British Ornithology, and The Naturalist. 

 T 2 



