THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, JAKffAM 31, 1360. 
273 
go lour ; bnbit a small shrub with woody stem and branches. A 
showy flowering shrub, blooming in summer. 
EjiEO'J'tTRiUW COCCINEUM (Scarlet Embothrinm).—A truly 
splendid, perfectly hardy shrub. Though not new, it is as yet 
rare. It lias stood the winter for the last fire years. Sir W. 
Hooker describes it a “handsome evergreen shrub, with racemes 
of the richest scarlet flowers.” Leaves medium size, rich dark 
green and very handsome ; habit good and a free bloomer. Every¬ 
body having a garden ought to grow one or move of this fine 
shrub. 
Fremontia Californica (Californian Fremontia).—A curious, 
handsome shrub, witli leaves shaped like those of the Fig-tree, j 
The beauty of the flowers consists in the large, showy, golden, ; 
ealices, produced profusely on short spurs. A handsome desirable 
plant. 
Olea ificifofia (Holly-leaved Olive-tree).—This rivals in 
fragrance the sw'eet Olea, and has larger flowers of a white hue. 
It is also evergreen, and the leaves are flat, serrated, oval-shaped, 
and prickly like the Ilolly. Native of Japan. 
Prttnus triloba (Three-lobed-leaved Plum).—Flowers freely 
early in spring, semi-double, rose-coloured, and very beautiful, 
rivalling our pink double-blossomed Thorn, and equally hardy. 
It is supposed to be a native of China. 
Rhododendron Fortuni (Mr. Fortune’s Rhododendron).— 
Leaves six inches long, oblong in shape and quite flat, deep green 
on the upper side and whitish beneath, perfectly hardy, and a 
distinct species. 
Rhododendron limbatum.—A handsome, curious variety, 
raised by Mr. Staudish. The flowers are crisped at the edges, 
blush in the centre, margined with deep crimson lake, distinct 
and quite hardy. The garden varieties of these beautiful shrubs 
are so numerous, that their name is legion. I intend some day to 
select a few of the best, and give a few ideas on their culture.— 
T. Appleby. 
THE CANARY AND THE BRITISH FINCHES, j 
{Continued from page 259.) 
4th.—THE BULLFINCH {Loxia pyrrhula). 
French, Le Bouvreuil. German, Dor Gimpel or Dompfaffe. 
Of all our English seed-birds, I know of no other so pleasing 
and engaging in confinement as the Bullfinch. Their pretty 
plumage, tameness, and winning actions, causing them to be 
general favourites. 
They are in size about that of a common Sparrow’. The beak 
is thick, rounded, and black in colour. The head also is thick, 
and the neck rather short, giving the bird a dumpy and not very 
elegant shape. The shanks of the legs are slight, and I have 
found their legs and wings are more apt to break, especially 
when handled, than the generality of other cage birds. 
In plumage, the top of the head, wings, and tail, are glossy 
black. Tail and wing-featliers having purple and steel-blue 
reflections. The rump and vent white; the back bluish-grey; and 
the breast in the cock is red, but in the hen grey brown. The 
nestling plumage differs from the adult, in the head, neck, breast, 
and back, being of a dirty brown. The tail, wings, and rump 
being the same as in the old birds. They are very generally 
diffused over the British Islands, though not so plentifully as many 
other seed-birds. They inhabit woods, copses, plantations, and 
shrubberies. The nest is built in a thick bush or shrub, and 
usually from three to five feet-from the ground, formed of twigs 
and roots, and lined with fine roots ; among which are occasion¬ 
ally a few bents and hairs ; but I have never seen either moss, 
feathers, or wool in any I have found. The number of eggs 
varies from three to six. They are rather blunt, of a bluish- 
white, with some dark spots at the thicker end. 
They have many provincial names — as Napes, Fope, Hoop, 
&o., and are sometimes called “ Pick-a-bud.” 
In a wild state they seem to feed chiefly on seeds, the kernels 
of some berries, and buds. 
Dr. Bechstein, in bis “ Natural History of the Birds of Ger¬ 
many,” gives the following as their bill of fare :—“The seeds of 
fir and pine, mountain ash, buckthorn, hornbeam, privet, sumach, 
dogwood-berries, hawthorn, and juniper. The buds of maple, 
red beech, oak, and pear. Linseed, buckwheat, millet, rape-seed, 
nettle ancl grass seeds.” And he further remarks that “ the seed 
of Spircea opulifolia is to them a great dainty.” 
Some years, in winter or spring, when they are unable to 
procure other food, they repair to the orchards, fruit trees, and 
bushes, and feed on the buds; consequently, most gardeners 
persecute and destroy these interesting little birds under the im¬ 
pression that they do much harm, and that may account for their 
not being more numerous. There is no doubt about their 
eating the buds of plum and cherry trees, as also of gooseberry 
bushes ; but I believe the injury done is very greatly exaggerated. 
Some writers affirm that they only eat such buds as are already 
attacked by a grub; but that would be more like the habit of 
the Titmice,for I do not think the Bullfinch ever eats insect food. 
My reason for thinking the injury done by these birds is greatly 
exaggerated is derived from the following facts that have come 
under my notice :—In 1847 I was living at Salehurst, Sussex, and 
in the spring theBullfinches came in great numbers to the fruit trees. 
Being desirous of catching some, I requested that they might not 
! be shot or driven away, and I set traps for them ; but without suc¬ 
cess. In a few days after, the gentleman with whom I resided 
showed me the trees and bushes stripped of their buds, the snow 
beneath the trees being scattered over with the bud-cases. He 
remarked that, in consequence of sparing the Bullfinches, they 
would lose all the fruit that year. I examined a green gage tree 
in particular, and I could not find a hud on it anywhere, and I 
regretted to think I had been the unthinking cause of such de¬ 
struction. But, after all, the trees blossomed well, the fruit set, 
and they had abundance of fruit that summer on those very 
trees which had been so stripped of buds. I do not pretend to 
explain it, but the next year the Bullfinches did not show at all 
among the fruit trees, which blossomed beautifully; they were 
one mass of bloom, but they did not bear any comparison of 
fruit to the year before when the Bullfinches cleared the trees of 
buds. I have often since been laughed at for trying to persuade 
others not to kill the Bullfinches, but to let them eat the buds. 
By noticing the effect, and pointiug it out to my neighbours, 
some of them have also been convinced—one in particular, who 
showed me his gooseberry bushes stripped of buds; was very 
angry with me because I would not believe but that he would 
have fruit there. He said it was impossible. “Wait and see,” 
said I; and those very bushes were loaded. I remarked it to 
him. “Ah!” lie said,’ “it was a good fruit year;” his bushes 
had escaped the blight, but if those Bullfinches had not peeked 
the buds he should have had more. The next winter not a single 
Bullfinch appeared in his garden, and that summer his goose¬ 
berries were a complete failure. I asked him how it was the 
trees did not bear that year. It could not be the Bullfinches? 
“No; it was the frost,* the blight, or something else.” But I 
w'as pleased after a year or two’s more experience to hear him say 
ho would never kill another Bullfinch, lor he had noticed, since 
I told him of it, that wherever they came there was most fruit. 
The truth of these facts I can vouch for; why it is so I can¬ 
not tell. 
If taken from the nest and brought up by hand, Bullfinches 
may be taught to pipe or whistle a tune. Many are annually 
imported from Germany that have been so instructed. Their 
education consists in keeping them from hearing any other birds, 
placing them in a small basket, feeding them every two hours or 
thereabout, and after each meal covering them up to prevent 
their attention being diverted, and playing or whistling their 
lesson over to them two or three times ; and even after they feed 
themselves it is necessary to continue their tuition incessantly for 
nine months. Some birds can learn as many as three tunes, but 
it is rare for them to pipe them without fault, and it is often 
necessary to whistle their tunes over to them after the moult, to 
prevent their forgetting them. One tune well piped is, perhaps, 
better than three imperfectly. 
W. A. Osbaldiston,Esq.(l792), says, “Somehave been taught 
to speak several words at command, and I have heard my father 
relate of one that among other words could say * mother.’ ” 
Even if caught old they are easily tamed, being naturally ycry 
