22 
British Birds. 
The Pine Finch. 
The Pine Finch (Pinicola enucleator). 
This fine bird is an accidental visitor to 
Great Britain, and it is only occasionally 
that the species wanders from its native 
pine-woods in the North of Europe and 
Asia to Central Europe. It is one of 
those species known as ‘ circumpolar,’ 
occurring near the Arctic Circle in both 
the Old and New Worlds, and nesting 
only in these high latitudes. 
In form the Pine Finch is very like a 
Bullfinch, and has the same thick-set 
head and bill, but it has not the black head 
of the latter bird. The sexes differ totally in colour, the female Pine Finch being 
grey with only a little yellow in the plumage, whereas the male has a fine rosy or 
crimson colour. In winter the Pine Finches assemble in flocks, which pair off for 
the summer. The food of the bird consists of seeds of pine, fir cones and berries. 
The nest is like that of the Bullfinch to a certain extent. It is, however, larger and 
is very neatly made of twigs and grasses, with a few rootlets and fine grass-stems in 
the lining. The outside net-work of lichen-covered pine-twigs is very pretty, and is 
constructed in the same style as that of the Bullfinch, but the twigs are rather 
closely and firmly intertwined. The eggs are greenish blue with tiny spots and 
larger blotches of brown, distributed over their surface, the stronger markings being 
chiefly at the larger end of the egg. 
The bill in this sub-family of 
birds is generally more acute 
than in the Finches or the 
Grosbeaks, and the angle of 
the ‘ genys,’ as the outline of the lower edge of the 
under mandible is called, is much more marked. 
Some Buntings have a distinct gap in the bill, the 
mandibles not meeting along their whole line, 
while in many species a round knob is found in the 
roof of the palate, which has been supposed to be 
of use to the birds in crushing up the grain on 
which so many of them feed. 
The Reed Bunting ( Emberiza schceniclus). 
This species is widely distributed throughout Great 
Britain, and is found in many situations near 
water, frequenting the sides of rivers, brooks or 
ponds. The female, which is much browner and The Reed Bunting. 
THE BUNTINGS. 
Sub-Family 
EMBERIZINM. 
