114 



British Cage Birds. 



first and secondary pen feathers are dark and light slate colour 

 respectively on the upper side of the quill, and black on the 

 under side, with black coverts ; the first or primary coverts 

 are of a light greyish slate colour. In each wing, close to the 

 rump (the outer plume), is a red feather. The throat, cheeks, 

 breast, belly, and sides, are of a rich, bright, salmon colour, 

 strongly impregnated with crimson ; the vent and under tail 

 coverts are greyish white ; the tail is black. The legs and feet 

 are dusky brown; length of legs, l;^in. The thighs are bluish 

 slate colour, and the under flue feathers black. 



Pied Bullfinches are sometimes to be met with, but they are 

 not worth purchasing, as the strange diversity of colour is attri- 

 butable to some constitutional disorder, and the birds never 

 live long ; a pied bird mating with an ordinary Bullfinch 

 may transmit the same complaint to its offspring, which 

 may in time become possessed of the diversified plumage, 

 but a young bird in its nest feathers never shows this 

 peculiarity. There are plenty of black, or partly black, Bull- 

 finches to be found, the change in colour resulting from 

 a protracted moult in confinement, and feeding too exclu- 

 sively on hemp seed ; a bird so distinguished in all proba- 

 bility suffers from a diseased liver, the result of feed- 

 ing on too stimulating food, or from not giving a frequent 

 change of diet. Instances have been known of birds moulting 

 black one year, and regaining their original plumage the 

 succeeding year. 



Habits and BREEDiNa. — Bullfinches inhabit nearly all 

 parts of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 

 and of most Continental countries. They are now, however, 

 very much scarcer in England than they were thirty years 

 ago. 



The Bullfinch, which has from two to three nests a year, 

 breeds late in the spring, seldom having young ones before 

 the end of May or the beginning of June. It generally selects 

 an orchard, wood, or park for a nesting-place, where there 

 are plenty of trees and thick hedgerows, and an abundant 

 supply of provender, near at hand. It selects fir trees chiefly, 

 when in a plantation, and builds its nest in the lower 

 branches, or in a blackthorn bush, near the top, so that, 

 when the hedges are in full leaf, it is not readily seen. The nest 

 is composed of small twigs and fine root fibres, and is lined 



