478 MICHIGAN HIRD LIFE. 



canary, but it has another call, loud and characteristic, used mainly on the 

 wing, and consisting of four emphatic notes. Its song is also somewhat 

 canary-like and is often long continued and varied. Dr. Brewer says of 

 it "It is sweet, brilliant and pleasing; more so indeed when given as a solo 

 with no others of its kindred within hearing. I know of none of our common 

 singers that excel it in either respect. Its notes are higher and more flute- 

 like, and its song is more prolonged than that of the Purple Finch. Where 

 large flocks are found in spring and early summer the males often join 

 in a very curious and remarkable concert, in which the voices of several 

 performers do not always accord. In spite of this frequent want of 

 harmony, these concerts are varied and pleasing, now ringing like the 

 loud voices of the canary, and now sinking into a low soft warble." 



This bird is'always sociable and is found in flocks during the greater part 

 of the year. Even during the nesting season the males frequently gather 

 in little companies about watering-troughs and other drinking places, and 

 frequently a dozen of these bright plumaged birds will be found bathing 

 in a puddle in the middle of the road. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male: In summer; forehead and front half of crown velvet black; upper tail- 

 coverts white; rest of upper parts, including scapulars, bright lemon-yellow; entire under 

 parts the same, except the under tail-coverts, which are white; wings deep black, the greater 

 and middle coverts tipped with white, and most of the secondaries and tertiaries edged 

 and tipped with the same; tail clear black, each feather with a broad white spot on inner 

 web near tip; bill yellow; iris brown. 



Adult female : In summer; upper parts olive-brown, yellowish on outer edge of scapulars; 

 under parts buffy or yellowish-brown, varying to dull greenish-yellow, and whitening on 

 belly and under tail-coverts; wings and tail about as in male, but duller black or even 

 brownish. In winter the female is similar, but browner above and less yellowish below, 

 the white wing-markings changing to buff. The male in winter resembles the female 

 quite closely, but the wings are much blacker and the light wing-markings broader. Yoimg 

 birds of both sexes resemble the winter female, but are still browner and more buffy. 



Length 4.45 to 4.50 inches; wing 2.60 to 2.90; tail L80 to 2.10; culmen about .35. 



216. Pine Finch. Spinus pinus (Wils.). (533) 



Synonyms: Siskin, Pine Siskin, American Siskin, Pine Linnet. — Fringilla pinus, 

 Wilson, 1810, also of Nuttall and Audubon.— Chrysomitris pinus, Baird, 1858, Coues, 

 1873, B. B. & R., 1874, and many others.— Spinus pinus, A. O. U. Check-list, 1886, and 

 most recent authors. 



Size and general appearance of the female Goldfinch, but distinctly 

 streaked with brown and gray, above and below, and with no 3'ellow except 

 on wings and tail; the half concealed yellow wing patches being 

 characteristic. 



Distribution. — North America generally, breeding in the British Provinces 

 and sparingly in the northern United States. 



Like its near relative, the Goldfinch, the Pine Finch is resident throughout 

 the year in Michigan, but in a very different way. Over the larger part of 

 the state it occurs only as a winter visitor or as a spring and fall migrant, 

 appearing in flocks from October to March and occasionally lingering 

 Avell into May and then disappearing northward. Throughout a consider- 

 able part of the northern half of the state, however, it is resident during 

 the summer, and it unquestionably nests in the higher parts of the Lower 

 Peninsula, north of the Saginaw Grand Valle}-, and probably over the 

 larger part of the Upper Peninsula. Its appearance is quite irregular 



