CHRYSOMITRIS PINUS : PINE LINNET. 229 



In Maine and northerly or alpine Vermont and New 

 Hampshire, where the pine tracts invite a summer 

 home, it sometimes stays all the year round, and is to 

 be found in winter with Red-polls and Crossbills ; but 

 a migration of most individuals commonly occurs, 

 spreading the birds through parts of New England 

 where they are unknown to breed, and thence onward 

 along the Atlantic States even to Florida. Again, 

 Siskins have been found nesting in the Alleghanian 

 Fauna, as for example at Cambridge, Mass. In the 

 last-named State however, as well as in Connecticut 

 and Rhode Island, they are chiefly seen from October 

 to May, infocks, associated with Goldfinches. Their 

 strong instinct of sociability is seldom entirely over- 

 come, even in the pairing season ; for they often or 

 usually breed in communities, large numbers occupy- 

 ing for that purpose the same tract of evergreen wood 

 or swamp, sometimes shared by equal numbers of 

 Crossbills. An interesting account of such a nesting- 

 place in New York State has been given by Mr. Mer- 

 riam (Forest and Stream, x, 1878, p. 463). The flocks 

 which " make up " in the fall sometimes number hun- 

 dreds of individuals, and scour the country in the most 

 erratic manner, like Red-polls ; but smaller troops are 

 oftener observed to roam about in quest of food, con- 

 ducting themselves much like Goldfinches under the 

 same circumstances. The lisping, querulous call- 

 notes, the smoothly undulating mode of flight, and the 

 general appearance of Goldfinches and Siskins, as 

 well as their food and manner of procuring it, are 

 much the same. They are seed-eaters in the strictest 

 sense, but fond of varying their fare to the utmost ; 

 now risin<r in numbers to husk the fruit of the largest 



