Wild Birds Useful and Injurious. 
81 
insects form the main support of the young, for they appear to 
be fed on seeds softened by their parents. Many attempts have 
been made to establish the bullfinch’s innocence, or to show that 
it is only slightly injurious. It can, however, hardly be denied 
that the damage done by it is often very serious, so much so 
that many ornithologists have been compelled, to their sorrow, 
to wage war on this otherwise delightful bird. The most that 
can be said in its favour is that its ravages are confined to a short 
period, whilst during the rest of the year it leads a useful life, 
and that in spite of its visits the trees sometimes bear abundantly. 
The bird, too, is frequently blamed for a deficiency in the crop 
Fig. 11. — Bullfinch, Pyrrhulci Europcea. 
due in reality to a late frost or an insect attack. A large portion 
of its food consists of blackberries, hips and haws, rowan berries, 
and the seeds of duckweed, thistle, groundsel, ragwort, plantain, 
dock, and other objectionable weeds. It has also been observed 
feeding on lilac seed. I have seen a small party of these birds 
eagerly devouring the seeds of a large sow-thistle, showing con- 
siderable activity in reaching the heads, and sometimes flutter- 
ing over them the more readily to attain their object. On 
another occasion a cock bullfinch showed to great advantage 
against the snow-clad ground as it stripped the seed from a tall 
dock. 
VOL. v. t. s. — 17 
G 
