THE SERIN. 59 



at the season of migration, join a stream of migrants, which would land them on 

 our shores. 



According to Naumann, the Serin prefers the hilly, cultivated districts to the 

 plains, chiefly frequenting orchards, plantations, avenues of fruit- and walnut-trees, 

 vineyards, and even gardens in the middle of villages, or close to houses. Dixon, 

 who met with it in Algeria, observes (Jottings about Birds, p. 59) " It is widely 

 distributed, not only in the mountain districts, but in the more northern oases." 

 Also, in his notes quoted by Seebohm (British Birds, Vol. II, p. 85) " It is a bird 

 that appears to love the richest districts, and we never met with it in the pine- 

 and cedar-forests on the Aures. In the oases the birds inhabited the luxuriant 

 gardens, the groves of fig-trees, and were seen amongst the apricot-trees and wealth 

 of shrubs beautifully clothed in the fairest of blooms. But amongst this semi- 

 tropical verdure, the Serin is difficult to see, and you only catch a hasty glimpse 

 of it as it appears on the outermost branches for a moment and then disappears 

 again. 



Amongst the date-palms, however, it is very conspicuous. There is little or 

 no underwood beneath these trees, and the bird perches exclusively upon them. It 

 was seen sitting on the topmost point of the broad leaves, sixty feet from the 

 ground, whence it occasionally took a little fluttering flight into the air to catch 

 an insect from the swarms flitting round the tree-tops. All the Finches in summer- 

 time are more or less insectivorous, and the little Serin is 110 exception ; indeed 

 it seems most industrious in its search after insects, not only flitting into the air 

 but occasionally clinging to the stems of the palm-trees, as if searching for its 

 food amongst the rugged bark. We repeatedly saw it, too, upon the tops of the 

 walls that divide the Arab gardens ; but it was always rather shy, and after a 

 moment or two's rest flew off to its usual refuge, the tops of the date-palms." 



The nest is placed either in a fruit-tree, or some other tree of moderate height, 

 a shrub, or bush ; it is loosely but neatly constructed of bents and roots, compacted 

 together with vegetable down, wool, and spiders' cocoons, or lichen and grey moss, 

 and is softly lined with similar materials. The eggs number from four to five, 

 usually five, and chiefly differ from those of the Siskin, or Goldfinch, in their 

 smaller size, being very pale green, marked with dark reddish-brown blotches, spots, 

 and sometimes lines, and with underlying sienna-reddish spots ; most specimens 

 are principally marked at the larger end. 



The food of the Serin consists chiefly of small seeds, and it is said to give 

 the preference to those of an oily nature : when rearing its young, however, as is 

 the case with other Finchea in a wild state, various small insects are also eaten, 

 and doubtless leaves and unripe seeds of weeds. 



