SISKIN. 39 



Breeding habits : The principal breeding-haunts 

 of the Siskin are fir woods and plantations. The bird 

 is said to frequent birch trees during this season, but 

 this must be exceptional. The Siskin appears to pair 

 annually. The nest is generally placed at a good height 

 from the ground (from twenty to forty feet), either in 

 the fork of a horizontal branch, or in a crotch near the 

 top of the tree. In such a situation the nest is extremely 

 hard to find, being difficult to see, owing to its small 

 size and the density of the surrounding or intervening 

 foliage. Both birds assist in its construction. The 

 outside of the nest is made of fine twigs, grass-stalks, 

 and roots, finally lined with moss, finer roots, vegetable 

 down, hair, and occasionally feathers. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eggs of the Siskin are five or six in number. They 

 are very pale bluish-green in ground colour, spotted and 

 speckled with dark reddish-brown, occasionally streaked 

 with darker brown, and with underlying markings of 

 violet-gray. As a rule most of the spots are on the 

 larger half of the egg, and displayed more or less in a 

 zone. Average measurement, "65 inch in length, by '51 

 inch in breadth. Incubation, performed almost entirely 

 by the female, lasts fourteen days. 



Diagnostic characters : Unfortunately there is 

 no character whatever to distinguish the eggs of the 

 Siskin from those of certain other species. In the 

 British Islands the eggs of the Goldfinch are most likely 

 to be confused with them, but the structure and locality 

 of the nest are safe guides to their correct identification. 



