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THE COMMON BULLFINCH. 
Pyrrhula vulgaris. — Temm. 
PLATE XIX. 
Loxia pyrrhula, Linn Pyrrhula vulgaris, Temm. Sfc. — 
Bullfinch of British authors. 
This very beautiful bird is generally distributed 
over our islands, though no where very numerous. 
It is of retired habits, frequenting woods and 
plantations, often where they are wild and of 
considerable extent, and here their call-note 
reaches the ear of the wanderer w'hen their haunts 
are intruded on, clear and distinct, yet melan- 
choly in its tone and cadence. In spring and 
winter, the shrubbery and gardens are frequented, 
apparently on account of the food derived from 
the fruit trees, where buds are eagerly sought after 
and eaten, the bud being paired down or bruised 
by the edges of the bill, forms itself the food, and is 
not broken, as some suppose, in search after the 
insects contained in it. The Bullfinch thus com- 
mits often serious depredations on the crop of 
the coming year ; at other times the food consists 
of the seeds of many plants, particularly those of 
the order Syngenesia, as the thistle, ragweed, &c. 
The nest is constructed on the lower branches 
of some evergreen tree, or among the underwood 
of the cover. It is rather carelessly built, shallow, 
