88 
BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
pla<=es as are afforded by yew or box. Twelve days are 
required for the incubation of the eggs, and the broody 
are to be seen with their parents tiU autumn, when they 
gather into smaU parties of from ten to twenty, and wander 
far afield wherever they can find a wood or plantation in 
which to get a living. At this season their ""'^^^J^ 
be swelled by an incursion or crowdmg-down of those 
Bullfinches that have passed the summer further north, 
and these emigrate again on the approach of spring. 
Writing from a fruit-growing district (Kent), Mr. Fred^ 
V Theobald says : " A single Bullfinch will do more harm 
in a plantation of fruit than all the rest of tl^e P"' 
together. For six months they live entirely on fruit buds, 
and as they come from the woods in autumn and contmue 
till March, the loss they occasion can well be estimated 
Mr B. Martin of Dardarroch possesses a very tme 
stuffed specimen of a white cock BuUfinch which was 
obtained "^in Buthwell on January 1st, 1907, but such 
abnormalities in this species are not common^ 
known as the "black Bullfinch" to the bird-fancier, 
fe the result of a surfeit of hemp and other alterations in 
its diet. As the " piping Bullfinch " the spec.es is well 
known to the cage-bird fraternity for it proves an apt 
pupil, and after constant reiteration by its instructor of 
some catchy song, is able to warble it wtth a very full clear 
note. Richard Bimmer writing from Kirkmichael House 
on February 4th, 1852, records a young female Bullfanch 
which had learnt to repeat one or two short sentences 
with great distinctness.! . , t, nc u ■ /i;= 
Dr Hartert has shown that the British Bullfinch is dis- 
tinctly darker and duller (especially in the female) than 
continental birds^J and that MacgiUivray's name§ must be 
adopted for this race. 
* Science Progress, 1907, Vol. II., P- 273. 
t Naturalist, 1852, Vol. II., p. 206. 
% British Birds (Mag.), Vol. II., p. 130. 
§ Hist. Brit. Birds, Vol. I., p. 407. 
