SISKINS AND REDPOLLS. 29 



that generally while perched they are silent and very quiet 

 birds, a number of them sitting in a Scotch pine, and re- 

 maining in it even a whole day, if not disturbed ; at any 

 rate, till every cone had been pried into, and the seeds ta- 

 ken out. They do not take the cone off; it may, perhaps, 

 sometimes fall while being robbed, from over-ripeness. 

 The holding of a cone in their claw, and extracting the 

 seeds with their beak, I have never witnessed.* After 

 finishing the produce of one tree, they fly off in a jerking 

 chuckling train, to some other. On the wing they always 

 chuckle, as though talking, and, on settling again, give one 

 or two loud notes, as the chaffinch does, as if to announce 

 his arrival. 



The SISKIN is always a regular winter visit er with 

 us, keeping company with the LESSER REDPOLLS, which 

 abound wherever there are alders along the banks of the 

 Wey : they feed almost entirely on the seeds of the alder, 

 and whilst intent on picking them out of the little catkin- 

 like cones, both these birds are so tame and fearless, that 

 you may pass under the tree without alarming them. I 

 have often been near enough to touch them with a longish 

 stick if I had felt inclined. While intent on getting at the 

 seed, which is no very easy task, they turn and twist about 

 in all directions, often imitating the tits in the variety 

 of their attitudes and strangeness of their contortions : 

 Bewick's marsh tit, with its back downwards and its head 

 slewed round on its shoulder gives a very good idea of the 

 position of a redpoll or a siskin when prying into the pen- 

 dent cones of the alder. They arrive about the beginning 

 of October in large flocks, consisting almost entirely of 



* Mr. Henry Doubleday has observed this act in some crossbills in confine- 

 ment. E. A". 



