218 BIRDS OF THE WORLD 



is derived from the Latin word for flax, linum, on 

 account of the bird's fondness for the seeds of that 

 plant. See Plate 17, Fig. 100. 



A very beautiful little bird of the Finch family 

 found in southwestern Europe and the British 

 Islands, is the Bullfinch, which gets its name from the 

 thickness of its neck. The sexes differ conspicuously 

 in colour, the females lacking completely the beautiful 

 red on the breast of the male. In her it is replaced by 

 chocolate-brown. The young resemble the female, 

 but lack the black cap, which is common to both sexes 

 in the adult birds. 



The Bullfinch, like the Chaffinch, builds a remark- 

 able nest, though the workmanship of the two differs 

 strikingly. The first makes a wonderful nursery of 

 fine moss, wool, and lichen felted together, while the 

 Chafiinch erects a platform of small twigs, sur- 

 mounted by fine roots and a little hair fashioned into 

 a shallow cup, in which the eggs are laid. See Plate 

 16, Fig. 91. 



A variety of the Bullfinch was discovered in Alaska, 

 in 1887. 



The home of the Pine-Grosbeak is in the far North 

 of both hemispheres — ^in the region near the Arctic 

 circle, wherever cone-bearing trees abound. Here it 

 flourishes, feeding on buds, seeds and berries, varied 

 by such insects as come within its reach. In this coun- 

 try it migrates south in winter as far as Virginia. In 

 the male the plumage is mostly rose-red, changing to 

 ashy below, the wings darker, with white bars. In the 

 female the head and rump are brownish-yellow. The 

 American species is similar to the European, but is 



