PINE BULFINCH. 155 



This beautiful species is said to be a very desirable cage- 

 bird, its sociability and other attractive qualities being very 

 engaging. It is also considered a sweet songster, and sings 

 even during winter in a piping and sweetly modulated 

 strain : during the spring its vocal powers are still more 

 frequently displayed. 



The food of this Bulfinch consists of the seeds of the 

 pine, spruce, and other fir-trees, which they obtain as soon 

 as the scales of the cones begin to expand ; also the berries 

 of many other sorts of trees and shrubs : they also devour, 

 like our common species, the newly expanding buds. 



This species, the largest of the European members of the 

 Bulfinch family, measures in entire length between seven 

 and eight inches : the wing is four inches and a half from 

 the carpus to the tip, and the longest feathers of the tail 

 exceed the closed wings about an inch and a half. The 

 beak measures half an inch from the forehead to the tip, 

 and is about the same in depth. The third quill-feather of 

 the wing exceeds the others ; the tail is forked, and the 

 outermost feather but one on each side is the longest. 



The plumage of the bird from which our drawing is taken 

 has the head, nape, cheeks, and sides of the neck, pale 

 crimson ; the feathers of the back and scapulars grey towards 

 the base of each feather, deepening into black towards the 

 tip, and deeply fringed with bluish-crimson, producing a 

 variegated or mottled appearance. The greyish feathers of 

 the lower part of the back and upper coverts of the tail also 

 bordered with crimson-red. All the feathers of the wing 

 black, the quills and secondaries narrowly bordered with 

 white, the tertials more broadly ; the two first rows of wing- 

 coverts very broadly tipped with white, forming two con- 

 spicuous bars ; the smaller coverts edged with grey ; the tail- 

 feathers dusky black, edged with reddish-grey. The chin, 

 belly, and under parts greyish-white ; the beak blackish-grey, 



