SONG BIRDS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



wild state); it communicates no harmony to the 

 grove ; all we hear from it is a low and plaintive 

 call to its fellows in the hedge. It has no familia- 

 rity or association with us, but lives in retirement 

 in some lonely thicket ten months in the year. At 

 length, as spring approaches, it will visit our gar- 

 dens, an insidious plunderer. Its delight is in the 

 embryo blossoms wrapped up at this season in the 

 bud of a tree ; and it is very dainty and curious in 

 its choice of this food, seldom feeding upon two 

 kinds at the same time. It generally commences 

 with the germs of our larger and most early goose- 

 berry ; and the bright red breasts of four or five 

 cock birds, quietly feeding on the leafless bush, are 

 a very pretty sight, but the consequences are 

 ruinous to the crop. When the cherry buds begin 

 to come forward, they quit the gooseberry, and 

 make tremendous havoc with these. Having 

 banqueted here a while, they leave our gardens 

 entirely, resorting to the fields and hedges, where 

 the sloe bush in April furnishes them with food : 

 May brings other dainties, and the labours and 

 business of incubation withdraw them from our ob- 

 servation. 



When wild, the Bullfinch does not often suffer 

 from the failure of its food, observes Bechstein ; 

 for it eats pine and fir seeds, the fruit of the ash 

 and maple, corn, all kinds of berries, the buds of 

 the oak, beech and pear trees, and even linseed, 

 millet, rape and nettle seed. 



Rape-seed is a healthy food for these birds in 

 confinement. The hemp-seed is too heating. 



