i - have gener +t with little admiration from the historians of the
fruit-trees. Its call-note and song have generally met with lit Fi ¢

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species ; but, being sweetly plaintive, they are to me extremely pleasing.’ fimece wih ve
As a caged pet few birds are more highly valued, pom on account of the readiness a H i a ae
friendly and familiar, and of his capability for learning to repeat easy ow meee pipers a e a | in
many of our bird-shops, and ‘‘ Charley over the water” and ‘* Rule Britannia” may there be hear issuing
from their throats with the greatest accuracy.
Speaking of the teaching of the Bullfinch, Bechstein says, ‘‘ Different degrees of capacity are shown here

as well as in other animals. One young Bullfinch learns with ease and quickness, another with difficulty and

slowly; the former will repeat, without hesitation, several parts of a song; the latter will hardly be able to
whistle one part after nine months’ uninterrupted teaching : but it has been remarked that those birds which

learn with most difficulty remember the songs which they have once well learned) better ann longer, and rarely
forget them even when moulting. Many birds when young will learn ee lias of airs whistled or played
to them every day; but it is only those whose memory is capable of retaining them that will abandon their
natural song, and adopt fluently and repeat without hesitation the air that has been taught them. Numbers
of these instructed Bullfinches are brought from Germany to London every spring, and are frequently adver-
tized in the newspapers; their price, which is sometimes considerable, depends on the powers and proficiency
of the performer.”

At all other seasons, then, but that of summer (when it is breeding), the Bullfinch may be observed in little
troops of four or five in number, probably the brood of the preceding year, accompanying their parents, until
the return of spring prompts them to separate. These little troops can seldom be approached without causing
alarm ; for it is the nature of the Bullfinch to be shy and retiring ; and, unlike the Robin, it seldom shows its
bright-red breast more than for a moment or two as it darts across the glade and over the hedgerow and
vanishes from sight. Its white rump, however, is always very conspicuous during these short flights ; its
presence, therefore, is seldom long hidden; and were it not visible, it would soon be detected in the covert
by the faint inward plaintive call-note it is constantly uttering.

April and May are the breeding-months, the nest being generally placed in a shrub or some low
tree. The beautifully constructed one figured on the accompanying Plate was taken on the 25th of
April, 1859, from the horizontal branch of a box-tree in the woods of Taplow Court. It will be seen
that the platform is made of the dead flower-stalks of the Traveller’s Joy (Clematis vitalba), and that the
centre is composed of very fine roots and tendrils and a few hairs. In it were six pale-greenish stone-
coloured eggs, some of which were blotched at the larger end with brown, and here and there had a streak of
black. The pair of birds to which this nest belonged immediately commenced the construction of another,
but this time selected for the platform old flower-heads of the alder; and these were so beautifully dis-
posed as to lead to the belief that the bird had a taste for ornamentation. In both instances the heads of
the plants employed were regularly arranged in a circle ; and the interior lining of both was composed of the
same materials.

So much difference occurs in the colouring of the sexes that it will not be out of place, even with so com-
mon a bird, to allude to the fact, and also to mention that the young when they leave the nest differ greatly
in colour from the adults. A few words, however, will be sufficient to point out these differences. The adult
male is at once distinguishable by the fine red colouring of his breast, which part in the female is rich
vinous brown, a colour which also occupies the centre of the back in place of delicate grey in the male.
The young, for a short while after leaving the nest, have the upper and under surface rusty brown, which is
also the tint of the tips of the greater and lesser wing-coverts, forming conspicuous bands across the steel-
blue primaries and secondaries. The bill at this age is pale olive or pea-green, inclining to yellow, and the
legs are purplish white.

In a note to me from Dr. Carte, of Dublin, that gentleman says “ the Bullfinch of the Crimea is a larger and
more brightly coloured bird than that of the British Islands.” I suspect that the Crimean bird is iden-
tical with the Pyrrhula- coccinea found in other parts of the European continent, which I know is also visited
by our species, as I have French specimens before me which are identically the same. Mr. H. Osborne,
of Wick, has also favoured me with a line, in which he states that the Bullfinch is rare in Caithness, but is
plentiful in Ross-shire, and may be seen all along the roads on the east coast wherever it is thickly wooded.

The Plate represents the two sexes, with a nest and eggs, all of the natural size, ona branch of the Larch.

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