80 
Wild Birds Useful and Injurious. 
tion and excited considerable disgust amongst gardeners by 
visiting the rows of peas, which form an irresistible temptation. 
The damage undoubtedly done in this way cannot be disregarded, 
for the success of the pea crop is a matter of no small interest. 
It is, however, a great pity to kill such an interesting bird, espe- 
cially as the nature of its food throughout the rest of the year 
renders it not only harmless but useful. It subsists principally 
on the seeds of the hornbeam, pine, laurel, and hawthorn, with 
the kernels of wild cherries and other stone fruits, which it is 
enabled to extract by means of its powerful beak. In summer 
it captures quantities of insects, principally for its young, and a 
Fig. 10.— Hawfinch, Coccotliraustes vulgaris. 
female hawfinch was once found to contain no less than forty 
caterpillars. 
The Bullfinch, Olph, or Hoop ( Pyrrhula europcea ), is charac- 
terised by (fig. 11) a very short, strong bill, a blue-black cap, 
and a pure white rump in both sexes. The male has in addition a 
brilliant red breast. The total length is rather more than six 
inches. The bullfinch would often escape observation if it were 
not for its mournful call-note, or for a glimpse of its white 
feathers as it flits through the coppice. 
Most unfortunately this handsome finch is destructive in 
gardens, for it strips the buds, especially the flower-buds, from 
gooseberry-bushes, cherry, plum, and other fruit trees. It also 
attacks the buds of the larch, beech, hawthorn, and similar 
trees. On dissection the bird’s crop may be found full of buds, 
whilst insects occur in very small numbers, though it has 
been stated that the winter moth, a great pest in orchards, 
forms part of the bullfinch’s diet. It is even doubtful whether 
