302 NOTES ON THE 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Bright gamboge-yellow; crown, wings and tail black; lesser 

 wing coverts, band across the end of the greater ones; end of 

 secondaries and tertiaries, inner margins of tail feathers, upper 

 and under tail coverts and tibia, white. 



Length, 5.25; wing, 3. 



Habitat, North America generally. 



SPINUS PINUS (Wilson). (533.) 

 PINE SISKIN. 



This bird resembles the Goldfinch so remarkably in many of 

 its habits as to have left no good reason for its specific differ- 

 ence, but in others it is so characteristic that the reasons are 

 evident ai;id satisfactory. It arrives here from some lower lati- 

 tude about the first of April and remains, feeding mostly like 

 the goldfinch, until about the first of June, when it is seldom 

 seen except in coniferous timber where it breeds. I have never 

 ^een its nest, but find considerable discrepancy in the descrip- 

 tions of different writers. Dr. Brown says it is "neat, is made 

 of pine twigs, and lined with hair." Dr. Merriam says the 

 nests are ' 'a very bulky structure for so small a bird, and its 

 rough exterior loosely built of hemlock twigs, with a few sprigs 

 of pigeon moss interspersed, is irregular in outline, and meas- 

 ures about six inches in diameter. The interior, on Lhe con- 

 trary is compactly woven into a sort of felt, the chief ingredi- 

 ents of which are thistle-down, and the fur and hair of various 

 mammals." 



The same authority says of the winter of 1878: "During the 

 past winter and spring they literally swarmed in Lewis county, 

 New York, and thousands of them bred throughout the heavy 

 evergreen forests east of Black river, while many scattered 

 pairs nested in suitable hemlock and balsam swamps in the 

 middle districts." It is certain that Dr. Merriam's observa- 

 tions radically differ from any of my own, and where he further 

 records the taking of eggs as early as March 18th, and the 

 presence of the young in April, I am astonished, for while 

 there may have been other similar observations in like lati- 

 tudes I have never had them. 



As before stated, these birds reach Minnesota early in April, 

 after which they are often seen, both in small parties of their 

 own, and associated with the Goldfinches. At the time of 

 their arrival, and for some time afterwards, the casual obser- 

 ver would scarcely distinguish the two species, or the sexes of 



