THE PINE SISKIN. 49 
No. 22. 
PINE SISKIN. 
A. O. U. No. 533. Spinus pinus ( Wils.). 
Synonyms.—AMERICAN SISKIN; PINE FINCH; PINE LINNET. 
Description.—ddult male and female: Above brownish buffy; below 
creamy-buff and whitish; everywhere streaked with dusky or dark olive-brown; 
the streakings are finer on the head and fore-parts, coarser on back and breast; 
wings fuscous, the flight-feathers sulphur-yellow at the base, and the primaries 
edged with the same color; tail fuscous, all but the middle feathers sulphur- 
yellow at base. Bill comparatively slender, acute. Length 4.75-5.00 (120.6-127.) ; 
wing 2.75 (69.9); tail 1.80 (45.7); bill .43 (10.9). 
Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; conspicuous general streakiness, sul- 
phur-yellow markings of wings and tail, most noticeable in flight. 
Nest, of grasses, twigs and vegetable fibers, lined with hair, plant-down or 
feathers, and placed, usually, high in coniferous trees. Eggs, 4, greenish or bluish 
white, spotted with reddish brown. Av. size, .68 x .47 (17.3 X I1.9). 
General Range.—North America at large, breeding in higher latitudes and 
in mountains of the West; also, sparingly, in northeastern United States. 
Range in Ohio.—Common but irregular in winter and during migrations 
in the north; less common southerly. Possibly breeds sparingly in northern 
portion. 
THE Pine Siskin is one of those happy-go-lucky mortals (he is mortal, 
is he not?) whose habits are the despair of all guide-books. We know him for 
a northern bird, and by all analogies he ought to quit our hospitable woods not 
later than the middle of May; but with the most reckless unconcern he lingers 
through May and into June,, until we are disposed to chide him for neglect 
of the primal instinct, or else to wonder whether the rollicking, roving bands 
may not have nests to watch that we know not of. Siskins have been found 
in Northern Ohio during every month of the year, but whether they nest or 
not is still undetermined. 
Their actions were still more puzzling at my home in Eastern Washing- 
ton. ‘There we lived not above twenty miles from the timber-clad mountains 
where they might have been supposed to breed, and yet roistering troops of 
them made free with the shade trees of our front yard, as the whim seized 
them, throughout every month of the year, save winter. Either these com- 
panies were composed of young bachelors too frivolous to love, or else they 
were made up of communists whose lives were too happy in general to permit 
them to think of particularizing in their affections. A recent writer’ asserts 
that they do nest in small colonies, three or four pairs in a tree, and that it is 
difficult to determine which particular bird is most interested in a given nest. 
1 C. W. Bowles in “The Condor,”’ January, 1903, p. 15. 
