428 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 pabt i 



probable our Pine Siskin winter visitors are birds that summer in the Black Hills 

 and those parts of the Rocky Mountains at a corresponding latitude, or northward. 



The fall and winter wanderings, especially in the East, are so 

 irregular in occurrence and so variable in extent that it is difficult to 

 define the species' usual range as compared to its total range. At 

 any rate there is usually some movement — vertical migration in 

 mountains, horizontal elsewhere, both unpredictable regarding the 

 amount or direction. In some years these movements become south- 

 ward incursions of vast extent. Dorothy Mierow (1946) summarized 

 as follows: 



Some years are marked by exceptional flights of these birds southward. In 

 1896, enormous flocks were found in Louisiana, South Carolina, Missouri, and 

 Illinois. Again in the year 1907, notable for its cold spring, flocks were observed 

 in Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan and Missouri. This year they nested in 

 Nebraska. The season of 1922-23 was characterized by an abundant crop of 

 beech nuts and wild fruits, and again the siskins appeared in large numbers in 

 Alabama, Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Nebraska. They were 

 conspicuous by their absence from Yosemite National Park, California, in the 

 fall of 1923. In 1925, they were seen in Kentucky and Michigan, and they nested 

 in North Dakota and also at Ithaca, New York. There were abundant spruce, 

 fir, and hemlock seeds in the Great Smokies of Tennessee in 1937. Siskins, 

 usually rare in Tennessee, appeared in thousands during November. In other 

 years, too, there were great flights at one place or another, but in these particular 

 years the movement was most marked. 



During an incursion into the southeast in the winter of 1946-47, 

 R. L. Weaver (1948) saw five birds in Orange Park, Clay County, 

 Fla., probably the southeasternmost record. 



The pine siskin is commonly stated to wander continually through- 

 out the nonbreeding season, especially during fall and winter. But 

 when food is plentiful, many observers have noted that siskins will 

 remain in one particular area over a long span of time. At North- 

 ampton, Mass., B. M. Shaub (1951a) analyzed his banding data for 

 early 1947 as follows: 



An examination of this record will show at once that the birds with which 

 we were working were not, in all probability, wandering winter visitors or tran- 

 sients as they generally have been described. On the other hand they had more- 

 or-less settled down in Northampton and vicinity for the winter and spring * * *. 

 [Seven banded individuals] were with us rather regularly over a period of 2)^ 

 months, although it is possible that they could have made visits to other localities 

 nearby and as often returned. 



Courtship. — The pine siskin probably begins breeding when a 

 year old, but data from banded birds to prove this are scant. 



Richard Harlow (1951) states that there is abundant evidence 

 that the crossbills and siskin have no definite breeding ranges. He 

 writes: "* * * I do not know of any locaUty in our northeastern and 



