PYRRHULA VULGARIS. 
Bullfinch. 
Loxia pyrrJmla, Linn. Faun. Suec..p. 81. 
Fringilla pyrrhula, Temm. Man. d’Orn., (1815) p. ‘200. 
Pyrrhnla europaia, Leacli. Syst. Cat. of Inclig. Mainni. and Birds in Brit. Mus., p. 13. 
ruhicilla, Pall. Zoog. Ross.-Asiat., tom. xi. p. 7. 
vulgaris, Temm. Man. d’Orn., 2d edit. tom. i. p. 338. 
rufa, Koch, Baier. ZooL, tom. i. p. 227. 
pileata, Macgill. Hist. Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 407. 
Before writing a history of our own Bullfinch, it may not he uninteresting to give a short summary of the 
known members of the remarkably well-defined genus Pyrrhula, an old-world form, the various species of 
which enjoy a range of habitat extending from the British Islands through Asia to Japan. None have 
yet been discovered in America; and North Africa would seem to be equally unsuited to these birds, 
since our own well-known species is the only one that has been found therein. The great Himalayan 
range of mountains appears to be their headquarters ; and, so far as I am aware, none occur in the 
southern parts of India, the Alalay peninsula, or in any of the islands to the soutlnvard. It is therefore 
strictly a northern genus. On the continent of Europe there are two species, Pyrrhula mlgaris 
and P, coccinea ; P. murina inhabits the Azores ; P. nipalensk Nepaul, Sikhim, and Bootan ; P. 
erythaca the mountains bordering Nepaul and Sikbim ; P. erythrocephala the Western Himalayas ; P. 
aurantia Cashmere ; and P. orientalis Japan. Our favourite Bullfinch is so generally distributed 
over England that it would he useless to particularize any one county in which it may be found more 
than another : at the same time, it is not alike plentiful in every district ; for there are localities in which it 
is seldom seen, while it is abundant in others. In Scotland and in Ireland it is less generally distributed. It 
may be described as a woodland bird, affecting more especially those parts in which the larch is the prevailing 
tree. It is, however, found in the hedgerows and plantations, both of lowland and hilly districts, and at certain 
seasons of the year, as every horticulturist know^s, visits the gardens, and commits depredations on fruit-trees 
to an extent unequalled by any other of our native birds. This trait in its character has very justly obtained it 
many enemies ; for to allow such havoc to go on unchecked would be beyond the patience of mortals whose 
gardens are their joy, and whose fruit-trees are part of their existence. On examination, however, of the form 
and structure of its scoop-like bill we become at once aware that it is “ Bully’s ” nature so to feed, and that its 
attacks upon the dower-buds of trees are in strict accordance with nature’s intentions — as it is for the Haw- 
finch to split open the hard seeds of the whitethorn, the cherry, and the laurel, to obtain the kernels within. 
Throughout this work I have been a champion for our poor persecuted birds, and defended them as well as I 
could in words, on account of the great amount of good they effect ; at the same time I am not unmindful 
of the destructive propensities of many of them. Mr. Smither, of Churt, informs me that two or three 
Bullfinches will strip an entire fruit-tree of its buds with such rapidity that in a few hours the ground 
beneath will be entirely covered with their outer coverings. It has been said that the buds are removed in 
order that the bird may secure the insect-larvae supposed to be within them. But while the buds of 
cherries, blackthorn, and larch, and the seeds of heath, are constantly found in their crops, Mr. Selby, who 
dissected dozens of these birds, never found any remains of larvae in their crops or stomachs ; and Mac- 
gillivray states that the only substances he detected therein were small seeds of various kinds, and 
particles of quartz. Of the individuals examined, some were shot in February and April ; but as the 
species was not common in any place where he had resided in spring, he was unable to ascertain whether in 
destroying buds and flowers the bird was searching for insects or feeding on those substances. I am sorry 
to give such a character to so fine a bird as the Bullfinch, or to be the cause of a single hand being raised 
against one so interesting; but the truth must be told ; and that he is a sadly destructive little fellow there 
is no doubt. 
Speaking of the Bullfinch in Ireland, Mr. Thomson says, “ In some picturesque and extensive glens 
in the county of Antrim, near Belfast, the bird was common so long as the hazel and holly of natural 
growth maintained their ground ; but as these were swept away, it deserted such localities as abodes, and 
‘ few and far between ’ are even its temporary visits. In the neighbouring county of Down it finds a 
home in sequestered situations, where the hazel predominates, and in this shrubby tree commonly builds. 
In ‘ Nature’s wild domain ’ the Bullfinch looks eminently beautiful, and can be admired without the alloy 
associated with it in the garden or the orchard, where it proves so destructive by eating the buds of the 
