NON-INDIGENOUS BRITISH BIRDS. 15 



grounds and vineyards, as well as the mountain thickets 

 and conifer woods. It is by no means a retiring species, 

 and I have repeatedly seen it within arm's length of 

 houses. Of its pairing habits nothing appears to have 

 been recorded. It is not gregarious during the breeding 

 season, but is certainly socially inclined, and several 

 pairs frequently nest in one orchard or garden. During 

 the early part of the breeding season, the male makes 

 himself very conspicuous, perching on the topmost branch 

 of a tree, or on the extremity of a large branch at some 

 distance from the ground, and uttering his clear sweet 

 little song. The female is much more seclusive, and 

 during the breeding season keeps chiefly to the cover. 

 The nest of the Serin is generally built in a dense bush 

 or at a moderate height in a fruit or other tree. I have 

 noticed the partiality of this bird for oleander bushes 

 and pomegranates. The nest is small and neat, made 

 externally of roots and dry stalks cemented with bits of 

 lichen, cocoons, or spiders' webs, and lined with vegetable 

 down, and sometimes wool and moss. Occasionally 

 hair and feathers are used in the lining. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eggs of the Serin are four or five in number. 

 They vary from pale bluish-green to greenish-white in 

 ground colour, spotted and blotched with light-brown 

 and dark reddish-brown, and with underlying markings 

 of paler brown and gray. Occasionally a few dark- 

 brown streaks occur, chiefly at the large end of the ^^g, 

 round which most of the markings are distributed, 

 frequently in the form of a zone. On some eggs 

 most of the markings partake more of the character of 

 blotches than spots. Average measurement, "62 inch in 

 length by "47 inch in breadth. Incubation, performed 

 chiefly if not entirely by the female, lasts, according to 

 Bechstcin, thirteen or fourteen days. 



