196 BULLFINCH. 
the countries south of the Baltic and west of Central Russia, 
as far as the northern portions of the Spanish Peninsula, while 
in Italy it reaches Naples and Sicily; wandering occasionally 
to several islands in the Mediterranean, and even to Algeria. In 
the mountainous portions of St. Michael’s, one of the Azores, is 
found P. murinus, a large insular species, in which the sexes are 
nearly alike in plumage, both of them being of a dull grey without 
any white on the rump; a remarkable development, as no connect- 
ing link is known in the Canaries or in Madeira. 
The unmistakable nest of the Bullfinch is a platform of fine twigs 
of the birch, beech, fir &c., surmounted by fine roots and a little 
hair woven into a shallow cup for the eggs. These, laid in the 
early part of May, are 4-5 in number, of a clear greenish-blue, 
speckled and streaked with purplish-grey and dark brownish-purple, 
especially at the larger end: measurements ‘73 by *55 in. A white- 
thorn hedge, or a fork near the extremity of a low branch in some 
leafy tree or evergreen (yew and box being favourites), are among the 
sites selected. The duties of incubation devolve upon the female. The 
young are fed partly on insects and their larvee, and partly on seeds 
softened by the parent ; but later in the year I have seen both old 
and young birds feeding upon the berries of the rowan-tree, dog- 
rose, hawthorn &c., while the seeds of such weeds as the dock, 
thistle, ragweed, groundsel, chickweed and plantain, are largely con- 
sumed, It is open to doubt whether the Bullfinch’s destructiveness 
to buds in spring may not originate in a search for concealed 
insects, but in any case a charge of shot fired into the tender branches 
of a fruit-tree does far more damage than the depredations of the 
bird. The call-note is a soft wheou. 
The adult male has the forehead, lores, throat, and head above 
the eyes, glossy blue-black ; mantle smoke-grey ; larger wing-coverts 
black, tipped with white, which forms a conspicuous bar; quills dark 
ash-colour, with narrow whitish edges to the emarginate portions of 
the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and sth; secondaries glossy blue-black ; rump 
pure white; tail glossy blue-black ; cheeks and under parts bright 
brick-red ; vent white; bill black; legs and feet dark brown. 
Length 6 in.; wing 3°25 in. The female is of a browner grey on 
the upper parts, and the under parts are vinous-brown. The young 
differ from the female in having no black on the head, and the bar 
on the wing is buffish-white. An entirely black nestling, found with 
three other young birds of the ordinary colour, attained after 
moulting the plumage of the female. 
