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C A R D U E L I S. 



tint ; the wings black marked with white and brilliant 

 yellow, and the head richly adorned with crimson or 

 scarlet, and in some species also with black. The 

 sexes are very similar, and their plumage is altogether 

 more tropical ; and after the autumnal moult, they 

 have no deciduous terminal edgings to their feathers. 

 Their habits, also, are less arboreal, the different 

 species passing their time nearer the ground, and 

 subsisting chiefly on the seeds of thistles, and various 

 other composite plants, whence, indeed, is derived 

 their generic appellation Carduel'is (from Carduus, a 

 thistle). They afe birds of the low country, and 

 those resident throughout the year, familiar in their 

 manners, building their exquisitely constructed nests 

 in our gardens and orchards, and cheering us, winter 

 and summer, with their sprightly, animated, and 

 pleasing songs. 



The siskins, on the other hand, are inhabitants 

 more of the northern pine-forests, and of the more 

 elevated districts in tropical parts, whence they 

 descend in winter, and straggle in flocks over the low 

 country. The character of their plumage corresponds ; 

 the hues of the more typical species are not so 

 bright, and the feathers are in winter fringed with 

 terminal edgings, which gradually disappear at the 

 approach of the breeding season. Their wings, as 

 might be anticipated from their more migratory 

 habits, are longer in proportion than in the true 

 goldfinches, and their bills are not drawn to so acute 

 a point. We might from this safely infer that there 

 is a difference in the general character of their food, 

 and we find, accordingly, that they subsist almost 

 entirely upon the seeds of various trees, our British 

 siskin chiefly on those of the alder and birch. They 

 appear to nidificate mostly about the margins of 

 pine forests, at a considerable height from the ground, 

 and the main colour of their plumage is always 

 greenish yellow, brightest in those species which 

 approximate most to the goldfinches, and more or 

 less marked in the others with spots and streaks of 

 dark-greenish brown, or dusky ; the males are much 

 brighter in their tints than the other sex, and are 

 generally upon the crown of the head black, and this 

 hue, in one or two species, extends over the whole 

 head and geat part of the neck. 



Deciduous terminal edgings to the new plumage, 

 which is acquired at the general moult, in autumn, 

 may be observed upon the throat and upper parts of 

 very many of the smaller birds, but chiefly among the 

 members of the finch family (Fringillida;), and of 

 certain divisions of the starling, thrush, flycatcher, 

 and warbler families. These edgings are merely a 

 continuation of the barbs of the feathers, and are, in 

 many instances, of precisely the same texture, al- 

 though generally of a rather warmer and more downy 

 nature ; they are usually of a pale dusky, or whitish 

 hue, and, as may be often observed in the snowfleck, 

 and sometimes in the bramblefinch, are very apt to 

 become quite white when much exposed to intensely 

 cold weather. In many cases they even entirely 

 conceal the true colours of a bird's plumage, so that, 

 in the spring, after they have disappeared, it would 

 seem to a superficial observer that a general moult 

 had taken place ; and instances are not wanting in 

 the books where such birds have, in consequence, 

 been described to change their plumage twice in the 

 year. When this fringe joins the ends of the feather, 

 that is, at the extreme points of junction where the 

 two colours meet, its texture is always considerably 



finer and weaker, so that, if we were to pull one of 

 the little plumelets, or barbs of the feather, it would 

 infallibly break at this place. Now, a feather, so 

 long as it remains attached firmly to the skin, is part 

 of a living structure, and a circulation takes place 

 within it ; but its vessels are exceedingly minute, and 

 the action within them is very apt to be obstructed, 

 more or less, by whatever affects the general health 

 of the body, and this is always immediately shown by 

 the diminished lustre of the tints of the plumage, 

 which consequently affords an excellent test by which 

 to judge of a bird's state of health. It would seem, 

 however, to judge from the always comparatively 

 dead appearance of the winter edgings, that this 

 circulation is never very complete beyond the narrow 

 part which joins the fringe to the extremities of the 

 back ; and when, in the vernal season, the action 

 within the feather is either much increased, or the 

 nature of the circulating fluids become changed, as is 

 indicated by the very great increase of lustre, and 

 not unfrequently decided change of hue which takes 

 place at that season, the pores of the narrow con- 

 necting parts appear to be finally obstructed, and the 

 edging, in consequence, dies and rubs off ; and the 

 brighter colours beneath, which had hitherto been 

 concealed by these dusky fringes, become gradually 

 exposed to view, until the bird becomes altogether 

 in what is commonly termed " its summer plumage." 

 The very obvious purpose of this structure is to 

 assist in preserving the bodilv heat, and we see in it 

 not only an additional supply of clothing for the 

 winter months, but also a hue better calculated than 

 that beneath it, both for preventing the bird's heat 

 from radiating, and for concealing it, whilst the leaves 

 are off the trees, from the observation of its enemies. 

 We see also both these objects even further effected 

 by extreme cold in the assimilating of the hue of this 

 additional covering to the tint of the snow and frost ; 

 and yet, as white would be a conspicuous, and there- 

 fore a dangerous dress, before the snow was upon the 

 ground, we find that the snowfleck (Plectjraphanet 

 nivalis), and one or two other species, which have 

 much white upon their concealed, or summer plumage, 

 have this actually covered in the autumn with dusky 

 or brown edgings, which, however, have a tendency 

 to become white whenever the weather shall be 

 sufficiently cold to render this change a protection ; 

 and here, therefore, we have another, and a very 

 striking instance, of the adaptations of the hues of 

 animals to the colour of their natural haunts. It is 

 worthy also of remark, that the young birds of the 

 preceding season, which, of course, are comparatively 

 tender, have tl!feir first winter plumage much more 

 thickly covered with these deciduous edgings than 

 those birds have which have moulted more than once, 

 insomuch that they may easily be thus distinguished ; 

 and it may be also observed, that a black plumage, 

 which, of all others, is the colour which most radiates 

 heat, is more frequently thus concealed and fringed 

 than any other colour. We do not mean to assert 

 that all black-coloured birds have these terminal 

 winter edgings to their feathers, but it certainly 

 often happens, among species that are very nearly 

 allied, that those which have partly black plumage 

 are thus fringed, whilst others, which are grey or 

 brown, are not. Thus the whinchat, and the common 

 grey flycatcher, have never any edgings to their 

 feathers, whilst the stonechat and the field flycatcher, 

 the plumages of which are on the upper parts black, 



