L O X I A. 
wfmg that plant, the feeds paffing through them ; often 
fly in vaft docks ; the note not unlike that of a bullfinch. 
10. Loxia pyrrhula, the bullfinch. The name of this 
bird is from the head appearing too large in proportion to 
the body. Nature has been liberal in bellowing upon it 
a beautiful plumage, and a fine voice. The colours be¬ 
come perfect after the firft moulting, but the fong mull be 
affifted and formed by art. In the (late of freedom, the 
bullfinch has three cries, which are all unpleafant; the 
firft, which is the moft common, is a fort of whoop ; the 
fecond is an air of greater extent, but lower, almoft hoarfe, 
and running into a difcord ; and the third is a feeble 
ftifled cry, which it vents at intervals, exceedingly thrill 
and broken, but at the fame time fo foft and delicate, 
that it fcarcely can be heard ; it emits this found much 
in the fame way as a ventrilcquift, without any apparent 
motion of the mouth or throat, only with afenlible aClion 
of the abdominal mulcles. Such is the fong of the bull¬ 
finch when left to the education of its parents ; but, if 
man deigns to inftruft it methodically, and accuftom it 
to finer, mellower, and more-lengthened, llrains, it will 
liften with fingular attention ; and the docile bird, whe¬ 
ther male or female, without relinquilhing its native airs, 
will imitate exactly, and fometimes furpafs, its mafter. 
Thus educated, bullfinches will fetch from five to ten 
guineas each. It alfo learns to articulate words and phrafes, 
and utters them with fo tender an accent, that we might 
almoft fuppofeit felt their force. The bullfinch is befides 
fufceptible of perfonal attachment, which is often ftrong 
and durable. Some have been known, after efcaping from 
the cage, and living a whole year in the woods, to recog¬ 
nize the voice of the miftrefs, and return, to forfake her 
no more. Others have died of melancholy, on being re¬ 
moved from the firft object of their attachment. Thefe 
birds well remember injuries received. Buffon informs 
us, that a bullfinch, which had beeo-thrown to the ground 
in its cage by fome of the rabble, though it did not appear 
much affedled at the time, fell into convulfions ever af¬ 
ter at the fight of any mean-looking fellow, and expired 
in one of thefe fits eight months from the date of its firft 
accident. 
The bullfinches fpend the fummer in the woods or on 
the mountains ; they make their neft in the bullies, five 
or fix feet from the ground, and fometimes lower; 
this conlifts of mofs, lined with foft materials; and 
its opening is faid to be lead expofed to the prevail¬ 
ing wind. The female lays from four to fix eggs, of 
a dirty white and a little bluilh, encircled near the large 
end with a zone, formed by fpots of two colours, fome 
of an ill-defined violet, others of a diltinft black. She 
difgorges the food for the young like the gold-finches, 
the linnets, See. The male is attentive to his mate; and 
Li nnteus relates, that he fometimes holds out to her a 
fpider in his bill a very long time. The young begin not 
to vvhiftle till they are able to eat without afliftance ; and 
then they feem inftinftively benevolent, if what is related 
be true, that, in a hatch of four, the three elder will feed 
their puny brother. After the breeding is over, the pa¬ 
rents ftiil continue affociated through the winter, for they 
are always feen in pairs; thofe which remain in the country, 
leave the woods when the fnow falls, and lodge among 
hedges by the road-fides; thofe which migrate, depart about 
November, and return in the month of April. They feed 
in fummer upon all forts of feeds, infects, and forbs j and 
in the winter upon juniper-berries, uponthe buds- of afpen, 
of alder, of oak, of fruit-trees, of the marfti-willow, &c. 
whence the name ebourgeonneaux, (from bourgeon, a bud,) 
which they iometimes have in France. In that forbidding 
feafon, they are heard to whiltle ; and their long, though 
fomewhat fad, cheers the torpid gloom of nature. 
It has been a filmed, that the canary, which breeds with 
fo many other fpecies, will never fubmitto the embrace of 
the bullfinch; and it is alleged as the reafon, that the 
cock-bullfinch, when in heat, holds his bill open, which 
frightens the canary. But the marquis dePiolenc paired 
Yol. XIII. No. 938. 
717 
a bullfinch with a hen-canary, which had five young ones 
about the beginning of April ; their bill was larger than 
that of canaries of the fame age, and they began to be co¬ 
vered with a blackiih down, which feemed to (how that 
thej had moreof the father than the mother; unfortunately 
they all died in performing a fttort journey. What adds 
more weight to this obfervation, is, that Frifch gives di- 
reftions for the experiment: he advifes that the cock- 
bullfinch be the fmalleft of its kind, and be kept long in 
the fame cage with the hen-canary; he fubjoins, that 
fometimes a whole year elapfes before the female will allow 
the bullfinch to come near, or to eat out of the fame tray; 
which fhows that the union is difficult, but not impoffibie. 
It has been obferved that the bullfinches jerk their tail 
brilkly upwards and downwards, though not in fo remark¬ 
able a degree as the wagtails. They live five or fix years; 
their fleffi is palatable according to fome, and not fit to 
be eaten according to others, by reafon of its bitternefs; 
but this muft depend upon the age, feafon, and food. 
They are a fize larger than the houfe-fparrow, and weigh 
about one ounce. The upper part of the head, the ring 
round the bill, and the origin of the neck, are fine gloffr 
black, which extends more orlefs forwards and backwards; 
hence the name of monk , or pope,' which this bird has in 
many languages, and that of coally-hood, given to it by the 
people in Scotland. The fore-part of the neck, the breaft, 
and the top of the belly, are a beautiful red ; the abdomen, 
and the inferior coverts of the tail and wings, white; the 
upper part of the neck, the back, and the (boulders, ci¬ 
nereous; the rump white; the fuperior coverts and the 
quills of the tail, fine black, verging to violet, a whitifti 
fpot on the outermoft quills; the quills of the wings 
blackiih cinereous, and deeper the nearer to the body ; 
the laft of all red on the outfide; the great coverts of tlie 
wings of a fine changing black, terminated with reddifh 
light grey; the middle ones cinereous; the fmall ones- 
blackiih affi-colour, edged with reddiffi ; the iris hazel ; 
the bill blackiih ; and the legs brown. See the Plate, fig. 3. 
The fides of the head, and the fore part of the neck, 
the breaft, the top of the belly, and almoft all that appears 
red in the male, is vinous alh-colour in the female, and 
fometimes even the abdomen ; nor has it the fine glolfy 
changing black that occurs on the head and other parts of 
the male. It is in length fix inches; the bill five lines, 
thick, and forked ; the alar extent nine inches and one- 
fourth ; the tail two inches and one-third, fomewhat fork¬ 
ed, (but not always in the females,) confiding of twelve 
quills ; the outer toe joined by its firft phalanx to the 
mid toe; the hind nail itronger and more hooked than the 
reft. 
There are two varieties of the bullfinch : one white, the 
other black. Schwenckfeld mentions a white bullfinch 
that was caught near Frifchbach, in Silefia, and which had 
only fome black feathers on the back. This is confirmed 
by Delille, who fays, “There are in Siberia white bull¬ 
finches, whofe back is fomewhat blackiih and grey in Fun¬ 
nier; thefe birds have a delicate fong, much fuperior to 
that of European bullfinches.” It is probable that the 
northern climate much contributes to this change of plu¬ 
mage. The Leverian Mule urn contained a bullfinch en¬ 
tirely of a fnowy white. 
The black variety includes not only thoffi which are 
entirely black, but alfo thofe which have perceptibly be¬ 
gun to affume that complexion. Thofe mentioned by An- 
derfonand Salerne were entirely of a jet black; that of Reau¬ 
mur, noticed by Briffon, was only black over the body. Buf¬ 
fon obferved one which afl'umed a fine gloffy black after tho 
firft moulting, but which dill retained a little red on each 
fide of the neck, and a little grey behind the neck, and on 
the fmall fuperior coverts of the wings; its legs were flefh- 
coloured ; and the in fide of its bill red ; that of Albin had 
fome red feathers under the belly; the five firft quills of 
the wing edged with white ; the iris white; and the legs 
flefh-coloured. Albin remarks that this bird was exceed¬ 
ingly gentle, like all the bullfinches. It often happens that 
2P this 
