BULLFINCH. -SOA.RLKT aROSBEA.K. 137 



I have heard it remarked that this bird is extremely silent, 

 and that its call-note is the only one it possesses. The fact 

 is that its natural song is an inward warble, so low that 

 unless one is close to it, it is not likely to be heard. During 

 its delivery it pufEs out its feathers and labours violently, as 

 if it thought it was making a great noise. It is valued as a 

 cage -bird for its beauty, and for the facility with which it 

 acquires artificial notes from a flute, or bird-organ. Though 

 this bird in confinement occasionally becomes black from 

 overfeeding with hemp-seed, I have known one instance of 

 a brood of four, taken near Hayward's Heath, which were all 

 black from the first, and one of them is in my collection. I 

 mention this, because I think for a whole family to be of an 

 abnormal colour, in an undomesticated state, is extremely 

 uncommon. 



SCAKLET GROSBEAK. 



Pyrrhula erythrina. 



This species has only once been taken in Sussex. In Yarrell's 

 ' British Birds ' (vol. ii. pp. 172-3) we read as follows : — " The 

 first unquestionable appearance of the Scarlet Grosbeak in 

 this country seems to have been recorded by Mr. Wonfor 

 (Zoologist, s. s. p. 1918), and the statement was confirmed 

 by Mr. Bond {op. cii. p. 1984), a hen bird having been 

 caught on the Downs, near Brighton, in September 1869. 

 This example was seen by the writer in Mr. MonFs aviary 

 at Lewes, and lived there until June 1876." Its habits are 

 described as much resembling those of the Linnet, though it 

 affects marshy coppices rather than the open country. It 

 is also called Scarlet Bullfinch. 



