298 ENGLISH BIRD LIFE 



ous season by season, in many neighbourhoods at 

 any rate, its beautiful Httle nest, built in fruit-tree 

 or evergreen, is still to be found in most English 

 counties. On the East Yorkshire coast, flocks 

 amounting to hundreds still occur in November and 

 even later, the birds resting for a few days in the 

 wooded ravines and then disappearing. 



About the alders and hazels which fringe the 

 stream, certain rarer visitors come at times in the 

 winter. Their appearance in little groups, their 

 constant activity and habit of hanging head-down- 

 wards might lead one at first to believe them to 

 be Titmice. But the sound of their distinctive call- 

 note, and a glimpse of their green- and black- 

 barred plumage soon make their identity clear. 

 Bred in the great fir woods in the extreme north 

 of Scotland, these colonies of Siskins would seem 

 to travel far afield. When one sees them in the 

 ravine they appear ever to be upon a journey, 

 traversing the tops of the trees, high and low alike, 

 and never remaining long in the same locality. 



The nest of the Siskin is usually placed in high 

 trees near the extremity of the bough. The eggs 

 are of a bluish-white spotted with red, and are 

 hardly to be distinguished from those of the Gold- 

 finch. 



The \A"heatear is the earliest of the summer 

 migrants to reach the shores of England. Often 

 on a wintry ^larch morning, even before the first 

 Sand-martin is seen, drowsily skirting the river- 

 banks, the Wheatear comes, a visible sign that, 



