BULLFINCH. 



59 



Provincial. — Hoop. Nope. Pope. Red-hoop. Tony-hoop. 

 Alp. Nope. 



This species is so well known as to make it unnecessary to be very 

 particular in description. 



The bill is black, short, and thick ; irides dusky ; the crown of the 

 head is black ; upper part of the neck and back fine cinereous grey ; 

 cheeks, breast, and belly, bright crimson ; vent white ; coverts of the 

 wings crossed with a white line just above the quill-feathers, which last 

 are dusky ; rump white ; tail black. 



The female is very unlike the male in plumage, except in the crown 

 of the head, which is black ; the whole bird besides is of a dirty brown ; 

 rump white. 



It makes a nest the latter end of April or beginning of May, prefer- 

 ring the thickest places for that purpose, most frequently in a black or 

 white-thorn bush, either in woods or hedges. The nest is composed of 

 small dry twigs, lined with fibrous roots. 



*I am at a loss to conceive on what authority M. Montbeillard de- 

 scribes this nest as consisting of moss, lined with soft materials, with an 

 opening said to be the least exposed to the prevailing wind ; and no less 

 why M. Temminck says " it builds in the most elevated and least ac- 

 cessible forks of trees." 1 I have seen a considerable number of the 

 nests and never found any of these circumstances hold good. I have 

 sometimes found them built in low thick bushes ; but most commonly 

 on the flat branch of a spruce pine or silver fir. In the former case, the 

 Bullfinch lays a foundation of birch twigs, placed crossways, in the forks 

 of the branches, paying more attention to the security of the fabric than 

 to its neatness. But when she gets into a spruce pine, finding that the 

 flat branch itself is an excellent foundation, she uses a much smaller 

 number of sticks. When she has reared a ground-work to her mind, 

 she proceeds to collect a quantity of flexible fibrous roots which she in- 

 tertwines into a sort of basket work rather loose, and only sufficient to 

 hold the eggs and young from rolling down. The inside is wholly 

 lined with fine roots, without any hair or feathers. Dr. Latham says 

 she rarely uses moss. 2 I should be inclined, from my own observa- 

 tion, to say never ; nor have I ever found this nest in high and inac- 

 cessible branches ; seldom so high as five or six feet from the ground, as 

 M. Montbeillard says, but usually about four, and sometimes even 

 lower. 3 Sepp's figure represents it as built in a cleft, but so loose 



1 Man. d'Orn. i. p. 340. 2 Gen. Hist. vii. p. 380, 



3 Architecture of Birds, p. 201. 



