Bullfinch

“ The bullfinch, though not properly a singing bird, or a bird of flight, as it does not move farther than from hedge to hedge, yet, as it sells well on account of its learning to whistle tunes, and sometimes flies over where the nets are laid, the bird-catchers have often a call-bird to ensnare it, though most of them can imitate the call with their mouths. It is remarkable that the female bullfinch answers the purpose of a call-bird as well as the male, which is not experienced in any other species of bird taken by the London bird-catchers. ”

“ A jar that holds spills is his usual resort, and, perched on it, he exercises himself in the harmless practice of pulling out the spills. He has never succeeded, but this does not damp his industry. For groundsel he has as great a partiality as the bullfinch, but he waits for his share till it is put in his cage, and then only goes in at his leisure. The bath is a passion with him, and his energy in the water fills the bullfinch — who more often makes believe than really bathes — with such amazement, that while the flurry and splash is going on he watches the canary with all his eyes. ”

“ I saw the scarlet-breasted bullfinch at the end of an elder branch; the little white rabbit, pink-eyed and with ears erect, putting out his head between two wisps of wild thyme and passing his paw over his nose, and the timid stag coming to drink at the spring and gaze at his branching antlers in the water.—On the morning when the sun of love rose upon my life, everything was changed ”

“ The canary sings beautifully, not with the student note that in the trained bird makes a room uninhabitable, but a soft, untutored song that nature whispered to him bar by bar, and so sweet is it that the matter-of-fact bullfinch always listens with attention, until, remembering his own powers, he settles down in a ball of feathers on some favorite vase, and chuckles obstinately through a rustic lay. ”

“ As we sat chatting and lighting our cigars, “Tally-ho!” was called from the other side of the cover, and we splashed through a muddy cart-road and out into the open just as the hounds were well away. Now was a ride for dear life. Every one had on all the speed the heavy ground would allow. In front of us was a “bullfinch” (a neglected hedge, out of which strong thorny shoots of several years’ growth have run up ten or twelve feet above it) . I had often heard of bullfinches, and no hunting experience could be complete without taking one. ”

“ The Bullfinch, though much admired as a cage-bird, cannot be said to be much of a songster. It is kept more for its beauty than its music, though it is sometimes able to ‘pipe’ a very pretty tune. Now, with respect to its food. Great numbers of bullfinches are annually destroyed by our gardeners and nurserymen because they are supposed to be destructive. Now, it is a fact well known to ornithologists that, although the sparrow, greenfinch, chaffinch, wren, bullfinch, and other birds, do not themselves actually live on insects, yet these form the chief food for their young. ”

“ There is the Bullfinch, a nervous, uneasy fellow, always in a flutter, yet easy to keep in cage life and ready to raise a family in captivity. These birds are at once beautiful and tuneful. In color they are as handsome as many of the birds of the tropics, while they can be taught a variety of bird [225] airs. They need to be coaxed, and their tutor must use the same coaxing words and gestures and even wear the same coat when he gives his bird its lessons. But a well-taught bird brings a high price and it pays the poor folks of parts of Europe to spend much time in teaching them. ”

“ The bullfinch is greatly persecuted by gardeners on account of the mischief he is supposed to do, for he has the habit of feeding on the flower-buds of fruit-trees in winter and spring. On the other hand, he is greatly esteemed as a cage-bird, and the bird-catchers are ever on the watch for it. ”

“ A pair of turtle-doves built in the same hedge one spring, and while resting on the gate by the roadside their "coo-coo" mingled with the song of the nightingale and thrush, the blackbird's whistle, the chiff-chaff's "chip-chip," the willow-wren's pleading voice, and the rustle of green corn as the wind came rushing (as it always does to a gateway) .
Goldfinches come by occasionally, not often, but still they do come. The rarest bird seems to be the bullfinch. ”

“ Attractive Qualities.—Although the song of the male and female bullfinch, in their wild state, is very harsh and disagreeable, yet if well taught while young, as they are in Hesse and Fulda, where there are schools of these little musicians, for all Germany, Holland, and England, they learn to whistle all kinds of airs and melodies with so soft and flute-like a tone, that they are great favourites with amateurs, and particularly with the ladies. ”

“ I have seen a large number of hybrid Finches, and have on many occasions examined birds described as crosses between "Bullfinch and Goldfinch,"
"Bullfinch and Linnet," and (occasionally) "Bullfinch and Redpoll" and "Bullfinch and Greenfinch"; but it is just possible that in each of these cases the order in which the parents' names were given should have been reversed. If it be the fact that no hybrids have been raised from the cock Bullfinch, it is very curious. ”

“ The Bullfinch hops over the ground in a somewhat ungainly manner, but is most adroit in its movements upon trees. Sometimes it will rest upon a branch with its body in a horizontal position and its feet stretched out, and at others will perch bolt upright, or hang head downwards from the twigs. ”

“ The Bullfinch does not exhibit much sensibility to cold, and is lively and cheerful even during our most severe winters, always of course supposing that it can find sufficient food; such powers of endurance are easily explained if we consider the thickness of its feathers, and this density of plumage has considerable influence upon its flight, which is slow and undulating, much resembling that of the Chaffinch, owing to its habit of alternately extending and shutting its wings ”

“ Grains of sand are always necessary to this bird, in order to assist digestion; the young are fed principally upon insects. In Europe the Bullfinch makes its nest by preference in such retired spots as are well covered with trees, though it will occasionally settle in parks or large gardens, and we have heard of an instance in which a little pair built in the ivy that surrounded the lodge of a gentleman's seat. The nest is usually placed at no great distance from the earth, either in the forked branch of a low bush, or on the ground, snugly supported against the trunk of a tree ”

“ To account for the presence of one peculiar species—the bullfinch (which, however, does not differ from the common European bullfinch more than do some of the varieties of North American birds from their type-species) is not difficult; the wonder rather being that there are not more peculiar forms. In our third chapter we have seen how great is the amount of individual variation in birds, and how readily local varieties become established wherever the physical conditions are sufficiently distinct. ”

“ The habits of our tame bird are very entertaining; it is constantly in motion, hops about its cage with much alacrity, and will hang like a titmouse from the wires at the top. The shyness it at first exhibited has quite disappeared, and it now greets its acquaintance with a cry of recognition. It eats millet, canary-seed, and ants' eggs, taking but few of the latter; nor does it seem partial to green food. The Carmine Bullfinch is replaced in America by a similar bird, and a species very closely allied to it is found in Arabia Petræa. ”

“ The bullfinch does not often go to the ground to feed; he gets most of his food on trees and bushes—insects, buds, fruit, and seeds of various kinds. He inhabits woods, plantations, and thickets, and is often seen in thick hedges and in the tangled vegetation growing by the side of streams. Where he is not persecuted he is a tame and rather sedentary bird, and will allow a person to approach within a dozen yards before leaving his perch. His call and alarm note is a low, piping, musical sound, very pleasant to hear. The male sings in the spring, and so, it is said, does the female ”

“ The plumage of the Bullfinch is beautiful, though simple and uniform, consisting only of three or four colours. In the male, a lovely scarlet or crimson colour adorns the breast, throat, and jaws, as far as the eyes; the crown of the head is black; the rump and tail are white; the neck and back grey, or lead-coloured. The name of this bird originates from its head and neck being, like those of the bull, very large in proportion to the body. The female does not share with the male the brightness of colours in the plumage. ”

“ A strange dialogue, in which it was often the man who said "twee-twee," while the bird answered with dictionary words.
The door of the cage always stood open. But Mignon loved the peace of his home. In his natural state the bullfinch prefers the most secluded and silent spot in the forest. His character is both trusting and contemplative. I remember once finding a nest of bullfinches in an ancient oak. The father and mother could not believe that I was an enemy. ”

“ Yes, and the beautiful bullfinch and the gaudy goldfinch as well, to say nothing of the siskin and canary, so it cannot be plebeian. The tree sparrow makes a nice wee pet, very loving and gentle, and not at all particular as to food. It likes canary-seed, but insects and worms as well, and it is not shy at picking a morsel of sugar, nor a tiny bit of bread and butter.
There were more birds of the same family that haunted this auld kirkyard. The greenfinch or green-grosbeak used to flit hither and thither among the ivy like a tiny streak of lightning, and the pretty wee redpole was also there. ”

“ CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘SING FOR YOUR DINNER’ THAT AMIABLE LITTLE FOWL, THE Piping Bullfinch, has very pretty manners. If he is a well-bred bird, as most Piping Bullfinches are (though they come from Germany) , he will, when he sees you approach his cage, put his head on one side, make two or three polite little bows, and whistle to you with very melodious and tuneful flutings. ”

“ It takes time and trouble to teach a bullfinch to whistle a tune, but it pays for the labor. A young bird must be taken from the nest before it has begun to twitter and kept where it can hear no sounds except those made by its teacher. ”

“ Bullfinches are very abundant in the forests of Germany, and it is there that most of the piping bullfinches are trained. They are taught continuously for nine months, and the lesson is repeated throughout the first moulting, as during that change the young birds are apt to forget all that they have previously acquired. The bullfinch is a native of the northern countries of Europe, occurring in Italy and other southern parts only as a winter visitor. White and black varieties are occasionally met with ”

“ A bullfinch, says Bechstein, belonging to a lady, was subject to very frightful dreams, which made it drop off its perch; but no sooner did it hear the voice of its affectionate mistress than it became immediately tranquil, and reascended its perch to sleep again. It is pretty certain that parrots dream. It is, indeed, a curious circumstance that the best way of teaching this bird to talk is to cover the cage over so as to darken it, and while he is going to sleep pronounce, audibly and slowly, the word he is to learn ”

“ A desperate black bullfinch, so thick that they could hardly see through it, is shirked by consent, for a gate which a countryman opens, and another fence or two being passed, the splashing of some hounds in the water, and the shaking of others on the opposite bank, show that, as usual, the willows are pretty true prophets. ”

“ It may happen that at feeding or cleaning-out time a cock bullfinch, or some valued bird, will slip out and escape. Nothing whatever will be gained by exclaiming, "What a pity!" nor would it be wise to chase the fugitive from bush to bush, because to pursue would merely frighten it farther afield. ”

“ The male chaffinch, for instance, will place himself in front of the female that she may admire at her ease his red throat and blue head; the bullfinch swells out his breast to display the crimson feathers, twisting his black tail from side to side; the goldfinch sways his body, and quickly turns his slightly expanded wings first to one side, then to the other, with a golden flashing effect. [78] Even birds of less ornamental plumage are accustomed to strut and show themselves off before the females. Birds often assemble in large numbers to compete in beauty before pairing. ”

“ One-tenth of the catch is sold in the streets. Of the quality of the street-sold birds I shall speak hereafter.
The Bullfinch, which is bold, familiar, docile, and easily attached, is a favourite cage-bird among the Londoners; I speak of course as regards the body of the people. It is as readily sold in the streets as any other singing bird. Piping bullfinches are also a part of street-trade, but only to a small extent, and with bird-sellers who can carry them from their street pitches, or call on their rounds, at places where they are known, to exhibit the powers of the bird. ”

“ In the latter case the same force would have been brought to bear in two different directions, and this, I think, has been often the case with our song-birds, though it seems to have been agreed to talk as if the opposite were. Surely the bullfinch, chaffinch, robin, linnet, greenfinch, and others—the males of all of which show off to some extent before the females—have been selected (if at all) as much by the eye as by the ear of the latter; whilst the lyre-bird of Australia offers an example of a highly adorned species that is also conspicuously musical. ”

“ The bud-destroying bullfinch eats also the seeds of troublesome weeds, the tit kills the spider which itself ensnares alike the troublesome fly and the parasite which keeps it in check, the moth, parent of the caterpillar, and the ichneumon which destroys the grub. It is all very complicated, very confusing. All the more reason for careful, unbiassed study of all animal life; we never know where and when we may hit on fresh light, a new link in this complicated, tangled chain of nature. ”