They were both killed at a single shot ; but the female was not found. The male is now in the museum at 
Berlin. Later, another pair were also shot. 
“ ‘ Th is bird does not, according to my observations, like large thick woods. I have seen it where there 
was none at all, namely, at Sylt, in Jutland. In one part of this island there are no other species of trees 
but small thorn bushes ; and in the northern part, where, between high sand-downs, a narrow creek runs into 
the land, is a little thicket surrounded by a low earthen wall, in which is the renowned duck-decoy. The 
ponds, canals, and the decoy-man’s house are all surrounded hy alder trees and thorn bushes. There is also 
a thick reed-bank about 10 feet high, which is all the protection that the neighbouring downs receive from 
tbe devastating north-west storms. Altogether it is not more than a hundred paces in circuit. The wood 
is quite stunted, yet it is, for such a neighbourhood, a very interesting spot ; and for me it became still more 
so when I met with a Scarlet Bullfinch, which I had never seen before in its free state. The male came to 
within fifteen paces, into a thorn-bush, and sang. It allowed itself to be observed freely, without any marks 
of fear. The female was not to be seen, nor the young, which had already (June 7th) left the nest. The 
old decoy-man, who chiefly dwelt there, knew of the nest, and took me to it, assuring me that these birds had 
for many years bred there, and that they were not rare in the island. 
“ ‘ When, with my friends Von Woldicke and Bole, I last approached the celebrated decoy at Sylt, I heard 
the song at a considerable distance ; and I drew their attention to it, that there might be no mistake. The 
resemblance of the song to some of the notes of the Reed-Bunting, as well as to those of the Linnet, both of 
which birds live in the same neighbourhood, is very remarkable. It is a very agreeable, loud, long, and, with 
many slight pauses, unbroken song, and is so peculiar that an ear like mine, which from earliest youth has 
been accustomed to observe the song of birds, can distinguish it in the far distance. In a neighbourhood 
where little can escape the eye, this beaiitifully-phimaged songster was easily recognized; and as we did not 
like to shoot it, we placed ourselves at a short distance, where, unseen, w'e were able to observe it for a con- 
siderable time. It may be an agreeable cage-bird ; but in confinement the red plumage turns into a perma- 
nent yellowish green.’ 
“ The Scarlet Bullfinch lives upon various kinds of seeds, more especially, according to Dubois, those of 
an oily nature, as well as those of the elm or alder. Naumann also suggests that it feeds upon the seeds of 
the reeds among which it likes to live. The same authority informs us that it nests among the woody plan- 
tations in the neighbourhood of St, Petersburg, 
“ Brehm, in Badeker’s work upon European eggs, gives the following notice of the nldification of this 
bird : — ‘ They nest in the thick woods and bushes of Siberia, in Lausatia, in the neighhourhood of Galitz, in 
Galicia, and in Poland, near Warsaw, where it is found in swampy situations overgrown with alder trees. 
Once in June it was met with, paired, in Ruthendorf. The nest is placed in a hush, and is made of moss, 
sticks, dry twigs, and shee})’s wool, and is lined with hair and wool. The eggs are a lively blue-green, more 
or less marked with black or brownish dots and spots at the larger end. They are inclined to pear-shape in 
form, without being, like those of other Bullfinches, swollen in the middle.’ 
“ In the first part of the ‘Bulletin of the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow’ for 1860 there is an 
article by Alexander von Nordmann upon the birds of Finland and Lapland, in which he states that this bird 
is very common in Soutbern Finland, which was not the case, according to the testimony of his father, thirty 
years ago. It builds every year in the Botanical Gardens at Helsingfors, in the tops of the maple and 
Carangana sibirica. It arrives about the middle of May ; and the young are fledged by the 25th of June.” 
“ The Rose Finch,” says Dr. Jerdon, “ is found as a cold-weather visitant throughout the greater part 
of India ; is somewhat rare towards the south, but common in the central and northern provinces, and in the 
Himalayas, chiefly, however, at the foot of the hills and in the valleys ; and it extends into Assam and Arracan. 
It visits the plains during October, and leaves in April. In March many are taken in fine breeding-livery. 
In the extreme" south I have chiefly seen it in bamboo jungle, feeding on the seeds of bamboos on several 
occasions; and so much is this its habit, that the Telugu name Yedru-pichike, or Yedru-jinowayi, signifies 
‘Bamboo-Sparrow.’ In other parts of the country it frequents alike groves, gardens, and jungles, feeding 
on various seeds and grain, and not unfrequently on flower-buds and young leaves. Adams states that in 
Cashmere it feeds much on the seeds of a cultivated vetch. Now and then it is seen in large flocks, but in 
general it associates in small parties. It breeds in Northern Asia. It is frequently caught and caged, and 
has rather a pleasing song.” 
The Plate represents a male and a female on a branch of larch. 
