GOLDFINCH 127 



twittering song, uttered both on the perch and when passing through 

 the air, and his musical call-notes, have a very pleasing effect, espe- 

 cially when the birds are seen in the open country in bright, sunny 

 weather. Unhappily, it is not now very easy to see them, except in 

 a few favoured localities, owing to their increasing rarity. For the 

 goldfinch is a favourite cage-bird, and so long as bird-catching is 

 permitted to flourish without restriction, this charming species wih 1 

 continue to decrease, as it has been decreasing for the last fifty years 

 and upwards. 



Siskin. 

 Chrysometris spinus. 



Crown black ; a broad yellow streak behind the eye ; the plu- 

 mage variegated with grey, dusky, and various shades of green ; 

 wings dusky, with a transverse greenish yellow bar, and a black 

 one above, and a second black bar across the middle of the terti- 

 aries ; tail dusky, the base and edge of the inner web greenish 

 yellow. Female : colours less bright, and no black on the head. 

 Length, four and a half inches. 



The siskin, or aberdevine, as it is also caUed, is known to us as a 

 winter visitant, but it is better known as a cage than a free bird. 

 In the British Islands it breeds in various places in Scotland, in 

 pine and fir woods ; it has also been found breeding in various 

 localities in England and Wales. In Ireland it is not so common 

 as in England. The siskin is a pretty, active, musical little bird, 

 somewhat tit-like in its manner of seeking its food, its sociability, 

 and the various positions it assumes in its search for small insects 

 and seeds in the higher branches of a tree, or when clinging to the 

 terminal twigs. As a caged bird his song is a small musical twit- 

 tering ; but in a wild state, in the pairing season, the male has a 

 more charming performance, for he then soars about the tree, and, 

 with fluttering wings and outspread tail, floats down singing to his 

 perch. 



The nest is built in a pine or fir tree at a considerable height 

 from the ground, and so hidden as to make it very hard to find. 

 There is a legend in some districts on the continent of Europe that 

 the siskin places a small stone among its eggs, which renders the 

 nest invisible. This legend reminds me of a belief of the peasants 



