214 FKINGILLIDjE. 



than a party of these innocent and brilliant hunters, perch- 

 ing, all heedless of spines and prickles, on the thistle 

 heads, plucking out the seeds with the pappus attached, 

 and cleverly separating the former from their appendage. 

 While thus employed, they seem to take it for granted 

 that no one will molest them, but continue their useful 

 labour, twittering pleasantly all the while, until the spec- 

 tator comes within a few yards of them, when they fly off 

 like butterflies to another prickly bed. 



THE SISKIN. 



CARDU^LIS SPINUS. 



Crown black ; behind the eye a broad yellow streak ; all the plumage variegated 

 with grey, dusky, and various shades of yellow and yellowish green ; wings 

 dusky, with a transverse greenish yellow bar, and a black one above, and 

 another black one across the middle of the tertiaries ; tail dusky, the base 

 and edge of the inner web greenish yellow. Female all the colours less 

 bright, and no black on the head. Length, four and a half inches. Eggs 

 greyish white, speckled with purplish brown. 



THE Siskin, or Aberdevine, is best known as a cage-bird, 

 as it is only a winter visitor in Great Britain, and during 

 the period of its stay is retiring in its habits. Siskins 

 are more frequently met with in the northern than the 

 southern counties of England, but are common in neither. 

 They are generally observed to keep together in small 

 flocks of from twelve to fifteen, and may be heard from a 

 considerable distance, as they rarely intermit uttering 

 their call-note, which, though little more than a soft 

 twittering, is as clear as that of the Bullfinch, to which it 

 has been compared. Their flight is rapid and irregular, 

 like that of the Linnet. They leave their roosting-places 

 early in the morning, and usually alight on the branches 

 of alder-trees, where they remain all day. The seeds of 

 the alder, inclosed within scales something like those of 

 the coniferous trees, form the principal food of these pretty 

 little birds, who are obliged to hang at the extremities 



