104 



a well-known and favourite cage-bird, and can be taught to whistle tunes with great accuracy ; 

 and sometimes one can be brought to learn three or even four tunes ; but, so far as I can ascertain, 

 it is an exception to find a bird that can whistle several tunes with accuracy. 



It commences nidification early in May, and builds a tolerably neat nest, which it places on 

 a bush or a low tree, usually not high up, but sometimes as high as 15 to 20 feet above the 

 ground. The outer portion of the nest is composed of thin, dry twigs of the birch, fir, &c, inside 

 which are fine roots, bents, and sometimes a few leaves, the cup, which is usually rather carefully 

 constructed, being lined with fine roots, hair, and occasionally with a little wool, though, so far 

 as my own experience goes, the lining most frequently consists of fine roots. The eggs, usually 

 four or five in number, are somewhat small for the size of the bird, measuring on an average 

 about f § by f§ inch ; but I have one that measures f § by f f inch. In colour they are pale 

 greenish blue, spotted with a few dark brownish red dots, which are sparingly scattered about 

 the surface of the shell ; but at or round the larger end there are larger spots and blotches of a 

 dull reddish or dark reddish brown colour, and a few pale purplish red or violet-grey shell- 

 markings. 



The female alone incubates ; but whilst sitting she is well supplied with food by her mate. 

 The term of incubation extends over about two weeks ; and when hatched the young are most 

 carefully tended by both parents, and fed with husked seeds which have been softened in the 

 crops of the old birds. Two broods appear usually to be raised in the season. 



The food of the present species appears to consist almost exclusively of seeds, berries, and, 

 to some extent, of tender buds, insects forming no part of its diet. In the spring it does some 

 damage in the gardens, owing to its partiality to the tender buds of the fruit-trees ; but on the 

 other hand it is eminently beneficial in consuming vast quantities of the seeds of various weeds, 

 especially those of the thistle; and Mr. Stevenson remarks that one individual in confinement 

 was known to eat two hundred and thirty-eight seeds of the spear-plume thistle (Cnicus lanceo- 

 latus) in about twenty minutes, though at the same time it was plentifully supplied with 

 hempseed. 



Dark varieties of the Bullfinch are occasionally met with ; and sometimes a specimen is to be 

 met with black, this being caused in caged birds by feeding them on hempseed ; but not only do 

 birds in confinement assume this dark colour, but this variety has been met with in a wild state. 

 Naumann remarks that he never knew of a wild melanistic specimen having been obtained ; but 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney writes (Zool. 1854, p. 4252) as follows : — " Last autumn a gentleman presented 

 me with a Bullfinch entirely black, which had been found of that colour in a nest containing 

 three other young birds all of the ordinary colour. This bird has subsequently moulted, and in 

 doing so has totally lost its black colouring, and has assumed the ordinary plumage of the female 

 Bullfinch." Pure white varieties appear to be the rarest ; but partial albinoes and pale greyish 

 varieties sometimes occur. 



The specimens figured are a very fine British-killed pair, male and female, being those above 

 described. As a rule, our British specimens are rather duller in tint of red than those from the 

 continent ; but this is not always the case ; I have therefore deemed it best to figure a rather 

 bright-coloured British-killed male. 



