Perching Birds. 



13 



is very similar to that of the BrambHng. In winter it goes south from its breeding 

 places, and is then found, in small parties, freciuenting the alders, and often 

 consorting with Redpolls and Goldfinches. Sometimes flocks of Siskins, consisting 

 of twenty or thirty individuals, may be noticed on the alders, all busily engaged in 

 obtaining the seeds, and hanging on to the twigs in every conceivable position. So 

 intent are the birds on their task that a note is seldom uttered, and I have many times 

 waited for several minutes under an alder into which I had seen a flock of Siskins 

 pass, before I could discover the little birds, which are generally seen feeding close 

 together at the end of the slender twigs. The nest of the Siskin resembles that of 

 the Goldfinch in size and in material, and the eggs are very similar to those of the 

 latter bird ; it is generally placed at a good height in a fir-tree, and is difficult to find. 

 The Goldfinch (Canluelis cardnelis). This bird, like its relation the Siskin, 

 has a more pointed bill than the Chaffinch and the BrambHng, and is of much 

 more slender build than those birds : otherwise, however, it is very difficult to 

 distinguish the different characteristics of these Finches, which are very similar 

 in structure to each other, and are told more by their style of coloration than by any 

 other well-marked character. It is, in fact, very interesting to notice how a certain 

 pattern of colour runs through a genus of Finches. Thus the Siskins are nearly all 

 greenish birds with black heads and throats and yellow bands on the wings, so 

 that this coloration is characteristic not only of our European species, but 

 of the majority of the species of Siskins which are spread over the New 

 World. So, with the Goldfinches, the onl}- species known are recognisable 

 at a glance by their crimson face and the patch of gold on their wings. In 

 form and in habits the Goldfinch is most like the Siskin, and the call-note 

 of both these species, and also that of the Redpolls, is much the same, and 

 sounds like the word eaglet. The food of the Goldfinch consists of the seeds 

 of the alder trees and those of plants, and 

 it is very fond of thistle-seeds. The nest is 

 a pretty little structure, smaller than that of 

 the Chaffinch, but built on the same plan of 

 concealment by means of the lichens and cob- 

 webs with which it is covered. It is built in 

 an evergreen bush, or in a fruit tree, and is 

 often placed at the very end of an outlying 

 branch of an oak or birch-tree, when it is often 

 (|uite inaccessible. The eggs are like small 

 editions of those of a Greenfinch or Linnet. 



The Twite {CnnnabinaJJdvirostrisi. Just as the Goldfinches and the Siskins have 

 a characteristic st_\le of colouring, so have the Linnet group of I'inches, viz. — a rt-d 

 rump and a red cap and breast — generally the three combined. The principal 

 exception to this rule is the Twite or Mountain-Linnet, which has no red on the 



Thk Twite. 



