62 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 



distribution of the Siskin is much more general, extending into Western Scotland 

 and the South of England. 



The adult male has the general colouring of the upper parts olive-green with 

 darker shaft-streaks, the rump much more yellow, showing the shaft-streaks dis- 

 tinctly at the junction with the lower part of the back ; crown of head black ; 

 wings black, the coverts tipped with yellow, the nights with white diffused borders 

 to the inner web excepting towards the tips, the primaries narrowly margined with 

 yellow and, excepting the first three, with broad yellow bases, forming a belt which 

 extends across the secondaries : central tail-feathers blackish, the remainder yellow, 

 with black shafts and broad blackish tips ; a broad superciliary streak extending 

 from above the eye to the nape ; lores blackish ; sides of face greenish yellow, 

 more green on the ear-coverts ; chin black ; throat and breast bright yellow ; belly 

 white, the flanks sordid yellowish, streaked with black : beak horn-brown, paler at 

 the base (becoming paler and pinker in confinement) ; feet pale brown (also be- 

 coming more fleshy in captivity) ; iris dark brown. The female is slightly smaller 

 and has a broader crown than the male, she is altogether duller and greyer in 

 colouring, with less yellow on the rump, wings, and tail, and with the underparts 

 much more streaked ; she has also no black on the crown or chin. The young 

 are still duller and greyer than the female. 



The Siskin is a bird of the pine woods during the breeding season, though 

 in winter it wanders about the country in small or sometimes large flocks, which 

 reach the south of England in September, and are eagerly welcomed by the bird- 

 catchers who net considerable numbers to sell as cage-birds. The Siskin is an 

 extremely restless bird, and in all its actions reminds one strongly of the Tit-mice ; 

 its flight is rapid but irregular, like its song ; but the latter to my mind is superior 

 to that of any other British Finch, in spite of its comical finish with six coupled 

 notes and a harsh chair at the end. The call-note is neither glee, zeisig, nor a weak 

 tit-tit-tit-tit; it is distinctly hootelee, hootelee ; the word glee is doubtless a corruption 

 of the telee (which is all that the ear can compass in the open, though in an aviary 

 with sloping roof the whole sound is clearly audible) ; the term zeisig probably was 

 given to this bird by the Germans more on account of its frivolous nature, than 

 because it in the slightest degree represented the character of either song or call- 

 note ; * I can only explain the quadrupled ///, on the assumption that a party of 

 young Robins happened to be in a tree occupied by Siskins. 



Mr. R. J. Ussher's notes on this species, which I quoted in my " Handbook 

 of British Oology," will bear repeating here; he says: "In April and May, 1857, 

 Siskins were unusually common at Cappagh, in the woods of fir, both on the low 



* The Mealj- Redpoll is sometimes called " Leinzeisig." 



