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 closely, though she is in general easily frightened away. The male is less so, but it is said that if he be disturbed, the nest is almost always deserted, which is not the case when the female is alarmed. William Henry Rudston Read, Esq., of Hayton and York, has recorded in the "Naturalist," old series, that, when resident at Frickley Hall, near Doncaster, a hen bird which built in a laurel near the house, suffered herself to be touched while sitting on her young ones, and would feed from the hand without the least fear. The birds are supposed to pair for life: the members of the family keep together until the spring.

Male; length, from six inches to six and a halfthese birds varying considerably in size; bill, very short, thick, and shining black; iris, dark brown; a few bristly feathers surround the base of the bill; head and crown, deep glossy blue black; neck on the back and nape, elegant bluish grey; chin, black; throat and breast, a lovely red; back, delicate bluish grey, on the lower part pure white. The wings ordinarily expand to the width of nine inches, and a little over threequarters, but sometimes more than that: the third quill is the longest, the second scarcely shorter, the fourth longer than the first, which is about the same length as the fifth: underneath, the wings are bluish grey; greater wing coverts, black, their ends white, forming a conspicuous bar across the wing; lesser wing coverts, delicate bluish grey; primaries, brownish black; secondaries, brownish black, the outer webs glossed with blue; some of them are occasionally found tinged with red; tertiaries, brownish black, tinged also with blue. The tail, glossy blue black, is of twelve feathers; underneath, it is greyish black; upper tail coverts, glossy blue black; under tail coverts, white. claws, brown.

Legs and toes, purple brown;

Female; length, five inches and a little over threequarters; iris, brown; head, not quite so deep a black as in the male; on the sides it is dull light chocolate. brown; chin, throat, and breast, dull light chocolate brown, with more or less of a tinge of purple or red; the back has the grey tinged with brown, and the white on its lower part is less extensive. Under tail coverts, less clear white than in the male; legs and toes, dusky brown; claws, black.

The young, when fledged, have the upper parts greyish brown, without any black on the head, and the

lower parts yellowish brown: after the first moult, namely, in about two months, their distinctive garb is assumed, but it is not till the second, or even the third year that the fullness of the bright tints is gained. The red is much deeper in some individuals than in others.

A specimen has been known entirely white, and others have been met with pied black and white. Caged birds not unfrequently turn black, of a duller or deeper tint-the result of their having been fed on hemp-seed. One is figured by Professor Nillson, which is pure white on the back, wings, and tail; but the head and all the lower parts of a delicate rose-colour.