60 ornithologist's text-book. 



embryo of the future blossom selected ; by this 

 procedure, though the tree is prevented from pro- 

 ducing fruit, yet the foliage is expanded as usual ; 

 but had the leaves, the lungs of the plant, been 

 indiscriminately consumed, the tree would probably 

 have died, or its summer growth been materially 

 injured : we may thus lose our fruit this year, yet 

 the tree survives, and hope lives, too, that we may 

 be more fortunate the next. The Tartarian honey- 

 suckle (loniceraTart.) and Corchorus Japonicus, 

 when growing in the shrubbery, are very commonly 

 stripped of their bloom by bullfinches : the first 

 incloses many separated blossoms in its calyx 

 before expansion, and in that particular is analo- 

 gous to the buds of icosandrious trees in the gar- 

 den ; and the full-petaled swelling bloom of the 

 latter affords a fine treat for their feasts ; but we 

 may permit these pretty birds to banquet here, 

 though, if we expect a supply of summer fruit, 

 we must unsparingly drive them away from the 

 branches of our frugiferous trees. The blossoms 

 of the peach, nectarine, and almond, I have never 

 observed to be injured by these birds: the sparrow' 

 will pick away the buds of trees against walls when 

 they frequent such places, but, with this exception, 

 I know none but the bullfinch which resort to that 

 food as a regular supply." — p. 159 — 16*2. 



Now the Hedge Coalhood (vulgarly Alp, Bull- 

 Jmch, Nope) is a great favourite with us ; we 

 consider it rather too sweeping a charge to say 

 that it " has no claims to our regard," and Mr. 

 Knapp is certainly in error when he declares it 

 " gifted with no voice to charm us;" that it "com- 

 municates no harmony to the grove," we are willing 

 to admit, as the song is so low as to be inaudible 

 at a short distance. But it is sweet and plaintive 

 in the extreme, although it has been noticed by 

 very few authors. Selby and Mudie mention it, 



