THE PINE BULLFINCH. 
275 
from plantations or shelter of any kind at the edge of Belfast bay, 
a short distance from the town. The attraction was seeds, of 
which those of the tree-primrose {(Enotfiera) seemed to be pre- 
ferred. The birds were very tame in all kinds of weather, but, as 
may be supposed, more particularly so during frost. Mr. Poole 
mentions the food of the bullfinch as consisting, in winter, of a 
variety of buds, of which those of the larch are much eaten, — in 
autumn, of the seeds of ragweeds (Senecio Jacobaa), &c. Small 
seeds were the only food in the stomachs of a few bullfinches 
which came under my observation in winter — they contained frag- 
ments of stone. 
Mr. Selby* and Mr. Knapp give very interesting accounts of 
the bullfinch from personal observation, and particularly with 
reference to the plants which it attacks. 
Different species of birds have, in the course of these pages, 
been mentioned, as occasionally becoming black. The bullfinch, 
when caged and fed much on hemp-seed, is particularly liable to 
become so. Many years ago at Edenderry, near Belfast, where a 
pair of bullfinches had been for some time kept, the male died, 
and the female, whose grief for his loss was very evident, soon 
afterwards moulted and assumed a full garb of black. Such being 
considered equivalent to the widow's “ weeds," was looked upon 
as almost supernatural : and more particularly so, when after a 
year of mourning she, at moulting time, threw them partially 
off, and exhibited some white feathers in her wings. I have known 
a piping bullfinch to be kept about twenty years, and at the ex- 
piration of that time to be in as good health as ever. Its age 
when purchased was not remembered. 
THE PINE BULLFINCH. 
Pyrrhula enucleator , Linn, (sp.) 
Loxia ,, „ 
Has, according to the following brief testimony, been once 
obtained. 
In the manuscript journal of that eminent naturalist, John Tem- 
* In Illustrations of British Ornithology, and The Naturalist. 
T 2 
