114 THE BULL FINCH A MISCHIEVOUS BIRD. 
that its kind might almost be doubted. The Orleans 
and green-gage plums next form a treat, and draw their 
attention from what remains of the cherry. Having 
banqueted here awhile, 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 labors and business of incubation 
withdraw them from our observation. 
The idea that has been occasionally entertained, that 
this bird selects only such buds as contain the embryo 
of an insect, to feed on it, and thus free us of a latent 
colony of caterpillars, is certainly not correct. It may 
confer this benefit accidentally, but not with intention. 
The mischief effected by bull-finches is greater than 
commonly imagined, and the ground beneath the bush 
or tree, on which they have been feeding, is commonly 
strewed with the shattered buds, the rejectments of their 
banquet ; and we are thus deprived of a large portion 
of our best fruits by this assiduous pillager, this “pick- 
a-bud,” as the gardeners call it, without any redeeming 
virtues to compensate our loss. A snowy, severe winter 
makes great havoc with this bird. It feeds much in 
this season upon the fruit of the dog-rose, “ hips,” as 
we call them. When they are gone, it seems to pine 
for food, and is starved, or perhaps frozen on its roost, 
as few are observed to survive a long inclement winter. 
But it is not the buds of our fruit-bearing trees only 
that these destructive birds seek out ; yet in all instances 
I think it will be observed that such buds as produce 
leaves only are rejected, and those which contain the 
embryo of the future blossom selected : by this proce- 
dure, though the tree is prevented from producing fruit, 
yet the foliage is expanded as usual ; but had the leaves, 
the lungs of the plant, been indiscriminately consumed, 
the tree would probably have died, or its summer growth 
been materially injured : we may thus lose our fruit this 
year, yet the tree survives, and hope lives, too, that we 
may be more fortunate the next. The Tartarian honey- 
suckle (lonicera Tart.) and corchorus Japonicus, when 
growing in the shrubbery, are very commonly stripped 
of their bloom by bull-finches : the first incloses many 
