J3TTLT,TTOCH. 
127 
den of the ‘Dragon of Wantley,’ ‘you could not choose but 
spy it/ 
These birds are easily kept in confinement, and have been 
known to pair with the Canary. They are very fond of 
washing themselves. 
The flight of the Bullfinch is quick and undulated, and 
capable of being protracted on occasion. It does not fly far 
when disturbed by your approach, but quickly re-enters the 
hedge, or the side of wood, along which it flitted before you. 
Its food consists of the seeds and leaves of groundsel, 
chickweed, and other weeds, hips and haws, berries and fruits, 
such as the cherry and plum, the buds, especially the blossom 
buds, of various trees, such as the plum, the apple, the medlar, 
the cherry, the gooseberry, and others; and if I may venture 
upon a conjecture, its name is derived from this circumstance, 
Bullfinch, if so, being a corruption of Budfinch, the word 
bud being pronounced in the vulgate of the north of Eng¬ 
land, as if spelled ‘bood.’ Small stones are also swallowed to 
aid digestion. 
The common note is a short, plaintive, and sweet pipe, 
which at once arrests the attention: it is accompanied by 
a flirtation of the tail: probably its vernacular names 
Nope, Hoop, and Pope, are derived from its resemblance to 
those sounds. In spring the song is a low and desultory 
warble, and the male bird frequently serenades his mate for 
hours together, while she is sitting on the nest, puffing out 
his feathers, and moving his head awry. The Bullfinch is 
taught to whistle tunes, and, I believe, to articulate words. 
Towards the end of April, the birds pair, and nidification 
is commenced in the beginning of May, and is finished by 
the end of that month, or the beginning of June. 
The nest is formed of small twigs, and is lined with small 
: roots, the whole being not firmly compacted: in some 
instances moss is added. It is generally placed either in a 
tree, such as a fir, or in the middle of a bush, frequently a 
hawthorn, at a height of four or five feet from the ground. 
It is often built in a shrubbery, even near a house, and 
occasionally, though but seldom, in a garden. 
The eggs, four or five in number, are pale blue, speckled 
and streaked with purple grey, and dark purple. They are 
hatched towards the end of May, after an incubation of 
fifteen days. The male takes his turn in sitting with the 
female. The latter sits very closelv thousrb she is iv general 
