8o 



BRITISH BIRDS 



breeds, rarely doing so in southern latitudes. In the house 

 it may be kept in any ordinary cage, providing it is large 

 enough to give the bird room to hop about freely. It soon 

 becomes familiar, and may be allowed out in the room : a 

 few grains of hemp, placed on the floor of the cage, will 

 always get it back again, without fuss or trouble. 



Its natural food consists of the seeds of the coniferce, 

 and failing these it will eat those of the thistle and other 

 plants, and in the house may have summer-rape and canary 



seed, but not too 

 much hemp, w^hich 

 would fatten it so 

 much that the bird 

 would soon die 

 of apoplexy; inga, 

 otherwise niger, has 

 a similar effect, as 

 also have maw and 

 linseed, none of 

 which should be 

 allowed except in 

 very small quanti- 

 ties now^ and then 

 for a change. 



The nest is often 

 placed among the 

 terminal branches 

 of the trees it 

 frequents, and is 

 twigs, secured by cobwebs and 

 fibre. The eggs, which are of a light greyish colour, are 

 thickly spotted with purplish-brown; they are usually five 

 in number. There are two broods in the year. In the house, 

 the male will pair and produce mules with a Canary, or 

 other Finch, or he will mate with a female Siskin which, as 

 a rule, is quite ready to nest in a cage, sitting on her ow^n 

 eggs and even occasionally fully rearing her young. 



Siskin mules are not remarkable for elegance of form, 

 beauty of colouring or for size; sometimes, when the 

 mother is a Canary, they are mottled, but, as often as 



TiiE Siskin. 



built of roots and small 



