180 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



the Great Auk, owing to persecution, and the comparative 

 helplessness of this creature in escaping his enemies, particu- 

 larly man. 



Should the Goldfinches ever cease to exist, let this be their 

 eulogy. The Goldfinches were peculiarly attractive on account 

 of their apparently happ}' disposition, and their sprightly, ex- 

 pressive twitters, which were never exchanged for the weak 

 and almost, mournful notes which many other birds adopt in 

 autumn and winter. What more could have been reasonably 

 asked than that these birds should be finely colored, sing 

 sweetly, have a variety of charming notes, possess a pecujiar 

 flight and attractive habits, be common and resident through- 

 out the year, and frequent the neighborhood of man? 



(B) piNUS. Pine Finch. '■'■ Sisldn." 



(An irregular winter-visitor to Massachusetts, occasionally 

 lingering here until June, and having been known to breed at 

 Cambridge.) 



(a). About 4f inches long. Flaxen; paler below. Thickly 

 streaked with darker, rather finely so on the head and under 

 parts. AVings and tail, black, with much 3'ellow, Vhich, in the 

 breeding-season, is more or less suflfiised throughout the plum- 

 age. 



{h). Dr. Brewer says : " Early in May, 1859, a pair of these 

 birds built their nest in the garden of Professor Benjamin 

 Pierce, in Cambridge, Mass., near the colleges. It Avas found 

 on the 9th by Mr. Frederick AYare, and already contained its 

 full complement of four eggs, partly incubated." " The eggs 

 are of an oblong-oval shape, of a light green ground-color, 

 spotted, chiefly at the larger end, with markings of a light 

 rusty-brown. They measure '71 by -50 of an inch." 



(c). So irregular are the habits of the American " Siskins," 

 that I have never clearly understood their distribution and 

 annual movements. Though these birds have been known to 

 breed exceptional!}' at Cambridge, in Massachusetts, they 

 usually breed in New England, only to the northward of that 

 State, such as in certain places among the White Mountains 



