killing them. But it does not appear to 
discriminate in any way at all, and will 
My 
i 
ny 
Y 
IX __ often work its way quite deliberately along 
one branch after another, 
crushing every single bud 
as it goes. And it lets 
the leaf-buds severely 
alone, con- 
fining its 
attentions 
entirely to 
those which would have produced fruit. Later on, too, it 
attacks peas, just as the hawfinch does. 
All that can be said on behalf of the bird, indeed, is 
that when it cannot obtain access to fruit-gardens and 
orchards, it may perhaps play the part of a natural 
disbudder, and help to prevent the evils of over-growth 
and unduly heavy fruitage in certain wild berry-bearing 
bushes. 
The nest of the Bullfinch is usually placed in a thick 
bush in the least frequented parts of a copse or a wood. 
It is made of small twigs and grass, most neatly woven 
82 
