FRINGILLIN.t:. 



177 



THE SERIN. 

 Serinus hortulanus, K. L. Koch. 



The occurrence of the Serin in England was first recorded from 

 the neighbourhood of Portsmouth (NaturaHst, 1853, p. 20), by the 

 Rev. W. Hazel ; and subsequently, about eight examples have been 

 obtained by bird-catchers in Sussex — most of them near Brighton ; 

 one or two near London, two in Norfolk, one in Somersetshire, and 

 one in Devon ; while Mr. G. C. Swailes saw and heard a male singing 

 near one of his aviaries containing Serins, outside Beverley on 

 April 26th 1897. In Ireland one was taken near Dublin, on January 

 2nd 1893. Almost all of these were noticed either in spring or in 

 autumn ; and although the Serin is a very common cage-bird abroad 

 and likely to be imported, yet, considering that it breeds no further 

 off than Luxemburg, it is probably a genuine visitor to our shores. 



In Holland, where the Serin was formerly rare, it is now captured 

 almost every autumn (Blaauw) ; it has wandered to Schleswig ; at 

 least a dozen examples have been obtained on Heligoland ; and its 

 northern breeding-range extends to Darmstadt and the upper portions 

 of the Rhine and Moselle valleys. Southward, it is found — generally 

 at the foot of mountains skirting the plains — throughout the greater 

 pari of Europe, and on both sides of the Mediterranean ; in Asia 

 Minor it is resident and extremely abundant, and it has been 

 traced to Sinai and Egypt. It visits the coast of Palestine in 

 winter, but in the higher regions of that country the representative 

 species is S. canonicus, a larger, paler and much yellower bird ; 

 while in the Lebanon, Taurus and other mountain ranges, reaching 



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