THE FINCHES 1569 



locality it is tolerably tame, though, so far as my own experience goes, it is very 

 shy and difficult of approach. During the fortnight I spent at Staufen, I never got 

 within range of one outside the town, though on several occasions I saw and heard 

 it. In the town itself I several times saw specimens; but as they doubtless had 

 nests in the neighborhood, and as, besides, it would not well do to shoot in the 

 town, I did not obtain a specimen. It may easily be recognized by its call note and 

 flight. The former somewhat resembles that of the canary, but may easily be dis- 

 tinguished by anyone who has heard it. Its song is poor, and lacks both depth 

 and melody, being merely a continuous twittering warble, generally uttered, it 

 would seem, as the bird is seated on the topmost spray of some tree, usually a fruit 

 tree. Its flight is exceedingly swift, and may not inaptly be compared to that of a 

 sand martin, which it far more nearly resembles than that of any other finch. It 

 sometimes sings while on the wing; that is, it will fly up from the spray on which 

 it has been seated like a tree pipit, and will continue its song during the short time 

 it is in the air. It feeds chiefly on seeds of various kinds, at least, all those I have 

 at different times shot, and the contents of whose stomachs I examined, had been 

 feeding on these alone, grass seeds and those of the various wild plants and weeds, 

 chiefly such as are oily, and it appears always to shell the seeds and discard the 

 husks before swallowing them. It seeks after food in fields, gardens, and especially 

 in the vineyards, in which last it is usually to be found. The nest is a very neat, 

 compact, little structure, very carefully made, and neatly shaped. It is built of 

 fine roots and grass bents, and neatly lined with feathers and horsehair. The outer 

 portion of the nest appears to be interwoven with spiders' webs, and a few bits of 

 lichen and gray moss are affixed here and there. A nest in the possession of Mr. 

 Carl Sachse, taken near Frankfort, is built in the fork between three upright small 

 branches of a lilac tree, and is constructed entirely of fine grass stems and rootlets, 

 intermixed with cotton and woolen threads. These latter are utilized more espe- 

 cially to bind the structure to the branches, which is most effectually and strongly 

 done, one of the branches being encircled at least a dozen times with a long piece 

 of tolerably stout, woolen thread. The lining consists merely of somewhat finer 

 grass stems than those used in the construction of the exterior portion." The 

 eggs vary from four to five in number, and are blotched with dark reddish 

 brown. When migrating in the north of Spain, these birds do not seem to 

 travel in large flocks, but rather in small parties, sometimes even singly, though 

 the latter were presumably only stragglers from the main detachment of the 

 migrating host. The serin finch bulks considerably among the small birds netted 

 in the environs of Paris, and occasionally it even straggles to the south coast of 

 Great Britain, where it has been taken on the southern shores on a good many 

 occasions, especially in the neighborhood of Brighton; its visits to Britain gen- 

 erally taking place in the spring of the year. The plumage of the male serin 

 finch is pale brown above, with dark centres to the feathers; the forehead and nape 

 being yellow; the lower back and rump bright yellow; the cheeks ashy gray; the 

 quills blackish or dusky brown, edged with yellow; the throat and breast yellow; 

 and the sides of the body and flanks ashy brown, washed with yellow and streaked 

 with black. 

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