

40 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



the development of the towns and the invasion of the bird- 

 catcher into its favourite haunts. The gradual cultivation of 

 waste-lands, with their accompanying plenitude of thistles, has 

 doubtless likewise had something to do with the disappearance 

 of the Goldfinch. An old bird-catcher has told us that in 

 his youth he once caught twelve dozen Goldfinches in a single 

 morning, placing his nets behind a hedge which then existed on 

 the present site of the Great Western Railway at Paddington ; 

 and we can remember when the Goldfinch was common in 

 Berkshire, and flocks of young birds were to be found in 

 autumn in places where a Goldfinch has probably not been 

 seen for the last twenty years. In winter it frequents the 

 alder-trees in company with Redpolls and Siskins, and is often 

 to be seen on the thistles, the seeds of which form a staple 

 article of its food. It nests in fruit-trees, and in many places in 

 evergreen shrubs, away from habitations, but the nest is often 

 built in the slender branches of a beech or oak tree in parks 

 and woodlands. 



Nest. Cup-shaped and beautifully made ; composed of moss 

 and lichens distributed externally ; lined with horse-hair and 

 downy feathers. 



Eggs. Four or five in number, of the same type as those of 

 the Greenfinch, but much smaller ; ground-colour creamy blue 

 or bluish white, with grey underlying markings, and spotted or 

 lined with reddish brown. The markings vary greatly in 

 strength and intensity, and some eggs are practically without 

 spots of any kind. Axis, 07 inch ; diam., 0-5. Mr. Seebohm 

 points out that the eggs of the Goldfinch cannot be distin- 

 guished from those of the Serin or Siskin, and can only be 

 told from those of the Linnet and Greenfinch by their smaller 

 size. The lighter ground-colour distinguishes them from the 

 eggs of the Lesser Redpoll. (Plate XXIX., Fig. 5.) 



THE SISKINS. GENUS CHRYSOMITRIS. 



Chrysomitris, Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 322. 



Type, C. spinus (Linn.). 



Possessing a bill of similar shape to that of the Goldfinches, 

 attenuated and pointed, the Siskins differ from the latter birds 



