62 The Serin 



a year passes without two or three being thus obtained, although it sometimes 

 happens that none are caught for a couple of years." One was seen at Beverley, 

 Yorks, in 1897. Two were caught at Dover, one near Yarmouth, in 1904, and 

 one was seen near Crowmarsh, Oxford ; a female was caught at Rottingdean, 

 Sussex, in 1906; and some were reported near Lewes, in 1907. The claim of 

 this bird to be included in the British list is, therefore, considerably greater than 

 that of the Scarlet Rose-finch, a bird generally to be obtained in Calcutta, and 

 frequently included in consignments of cage-birds from India.* 



The male Serin, of which the wild Canary is considered to be a sub-species, 

 has the forehead, a superciliary streak, the rump, and the under-parts, bright 

 yellow ; the under tail-coverts are, however, almost white, and the flanks streaked 

 with brown ; the remainder of the body, as well as the wing and tail-feathers, are 

 deep olive-brown, mostly with j-ellowish margins ; but the greater wing-coverts 

 and secondaries are margined with sordid white ; beak dark horn-brown, paler at 

 the base of the lower mandible ; feet pale brown ; iris dark brown. The female 

 is duller and more prominently streaked than the male, and in the winter both 

 sexes are distinctly duller than in the summer. The j-ouug show ver}' little 

 3'ellow colouring in their plumage. 



As bearing upon the cpiestion whether or not the Serin is likely, from time 

 to time, to visit England, the following note by Herr Gatke is of interest: — "Now, 

 although one can hardly expect to hear of this bird building a nest in Heligoland, 

 the occurrence here of five young grey individuals during the summer months at 

 all events seems to admit of the conclusion that these birds may have been bred 

 in the neighbourhood of the island, perhaps in Slcswick-Holstein. I do not, how- 

 ever, share the view that breeding attempts of this kind, made in districts far 

 distant from the regular home, justify one in assuming an extension of the breeding 

 area." It is conceivable, that birds bred far from their usual .summer haunts, might 

 at the season of migration, join a stream of migrants, which would land them on 

 our shores. 



According to Naumann, the Serin prefers the hill}', cultivated districts to the 

 plains, chiefly frequenting orchards, plantations, avenues of fruit- and walnut- 

 trees, vineyards, and even gardens in the middle of villages, or close to houses. 

 Dixon, who met with it in Algeria, observes (Jottings about Birds, p. 59) — " It 

 is widely distributed, not only in the mountain districts, but in the more northern 



* It may be asked how these birds would be likely to escape. lu 1S96, a frieud of mine, who has a 

 collectiou of some five or six hundred foreign birds, had his aviaries broken into, a few birds stolen, and all 

 the aviary doors left wide open : not a few interesting foreigners escaped, and were not recaptured by the 

 owner. This is the second time that he has been plundered, yet he is but one among hundreds of aviculturists 

 in Great Britain. 



