FRINGILLID#. 197 
derest twigs of the alder-bushes, sometimes in small 
companies of its own kind and sometimes mixed up 
with Tits and Lesser Redpoles. 
The Siskins pick out the seeds from the catkins 
of the alders with great dexterity, hanging for this 
purpose from the twigs in all sorts of attitudes; 
sometimes sideways, sometimes with their heads 
down, and occasionally flying to the ground after a 
fallen catkin: besides this they eat the buds ot 
various trees, picking out the germ and also the 
seeds of weeds. In confinement they grow very 
tame and are easily kept, feeding on canary, rape, 
hemp or any other bird-seed, but still showing their 
partiality for the seeds of the alder when they can 
get a supply: they will also pick up the seeds of 
grass, docks, thistles, or any other weed that is 
offered to them. 
The Siskin occasionally breeds in confinement 
and crosses readily with the Canary, and also, I 
believe, but not so readily, with the Lesser Redpole. 
In its wild state it is not generally supposed to 
breed in England: two instances, however, of its 
doing so in the County of Surrey are mentioned 
by Meyer. In Scotland it frequently remains to 
breed. 
The place usually chosen for the nest appears to 
be high up in a spruce or other fir-tree; but it will 
occasionally, probably in the absence of high trees, 
make its nest in a furze or other low bush;. it is said 
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