404 CARDUELIS SPINUS. 



the place where I had formerly started them. I again and 

 again renewed my search, but without success. A few days 

 after this, when two persons where catching Rose Linnets with 

 bird-lime in a small park belonging to me, they were struck 

 w^ith the unusual chirping of young birds in a spruce which 

 was planted in the middle of a very strong hawthorn hedge. 

 When they were looking into the tree in order to discover 

 w^hat kind of birds they were, they immediately flew out of 

 their nest, and, being ripe, effected their escape. They ap- 

 peared to have a resemblance to the female Siskin. The nest 

 was a small one ; it was built upon two of the branches, one 

 side of it resting upon the trunk of the tree. It was about five 

 feet and a half from the ground, and within twelve yards of 

 the north Glasgow road. It was one of the best concealed 

 nests I ever saw. Indeed, had it not been so, it would not 

 have so long eluded the notice of some of our most celebrated 

 nest-hunting youths, who were almost in the daily habit of 

 passing the place in pursuit of their favourite amusement. The 

 old Siskins, with their four young ones, were seen for two or 

 three weeks afterwards in the immediate neighbourhood. Mr. 

 Macduif Carfrae, bird-stuffer in Edinburgh, who came out to 

 pay me a visit, when taking a walk one morning about the 

 middle of July, with Mr. Robert M'Nab, saddler in Bathgate, 

 saw the same birds hopping among the branches of some alder 

 trees, about the distance of a quarter of a mile from the place 

 where they had been hatched." 



