SISKIN 439 



and arriving at a perch. Sometimes when stirred up they will fly around 

 in a wide circle several times and then settle down again practically in 

 the place whence they arose; and this same repeated circling is apt to 

 occur when they arrive from a distance and are settling down preparatory 

 to foraging in some particular spot. 



At times a flock of siskins will act as if greatly perturbed, and fly about 

 seemingly without definite purpose. The flock will alight in one tree only 

 to leave precipitately a few seconds later and make off in a circling course 

 to some other temporary resting place. Such a performance is usually 

 accompanied by frequent utterances of the gasping ' watch- winding ' note. 

 When actively foraging, the individuals perch every which way, some 

 upside down like chickadees. Often a large feeding flock will be perfectly 

 quiet save for the patter of falling bud scales or seed hulls. 



The Pine Siskin subsists upon a somewhat different class of food than 

 its goldfinch relatives. Its usual diet comprises tree buds of various kinds, 

 material from seed cones and catkins of alders and willows, and tender 

 young needle tips from coniferous trees. Some of the siskins seen at Fort 

 Monroe on November 26, 1914, were feeding on buds in the black oaks, 

 while others were searching for seeds in the little cones of the Douglas 

 spruces. At Tuolumne Meadows on July 5, 1915, the birds were feeding 

 in the terminal foliage of lodgepole pines and an adult bird taken had its 

 crop filled with needle buds of that tree. A certain amount of the foraging 

 of siskins is done on the ground in openings between forest trees, or in 

 meadows, where ripening seeds of plants of the sunflower tribe are dili- 

 gently sought after. 



We obtained only one suggestion as to the nesting activities of the 

 Pine Siskin. At Tuolumne Meadows on July 6, 1915, a young bird, not 

 able to fly, was picked up from the ground. It had evidently fallen from 

 a nest somewhere in the lodgepole pines near by. 



English Sparrow. Passer domesticus (Linnaeus) 



Field characters. — Size of Junco but of more chunky build. Sexes different. Female 

 and young: upper surface of body brown, the upper back and wings streaked with 

 black; under surface of body without markings, grayish white often soiled to dark sooty 

 brown. Male: Similar, but with large patch involving middle of chin and throat, and 

 more or less of breast, black; also much chestnut on side of head, back, and wings. 

 Voice: No regular song; a variety of unmelodious notes. Most usual call a harsh chis- 

 siclc. 



Occurrence. — Eesident at Snelling, Mount Bullion and Coulterville ; reported in 

 Yosemite Valley, September 2, 1920 (C. W. Michael, MS). Lives in streets of towns 

 and sometimes about farmhouses or stables. In flocks except when nesting. 



