278 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



forth a torrent of canarylike warbling which sometimes approaches in 

 beauty the song of the Purple finch. 



The nest is constructed the latest of all our native birds. They rarely 

 begin to build before the last week in June, although they may have been 

 in residence throughout the year. Fresh eggs have been taken from the 

 5th to the 27th of July, sometimes as late as the 10th to the 19th of August, 

 and on one occasion I found a Goldfinch's nest with eggs the first week 

 in September. This is very unusual. The site selected is in a bush or 

 tree from 5 to 30 feet from the ground, usually among thickly clustered 

 limbs. The structure is composed externally of fine grasses, strips of 

 bark, especially the epidermis of the milkweed, and mosses, lined with 

 thistledown, a fact almost universal in this species, which has given it 

 the name of " Thistle bird " in many portions of the State. The eggs 

 are from 3 to 6 in number, normally 5, ovate in shape, white in color, 

 slightly tinged with bluish, averaging .65 by .48 inches in dimensions. 

 Only one brood is reared. The time of incubation is about 10 days. 



Spinus pinus (Wilson) 

 Pine Siskin 



Plate 78 



Fringilla pinus Wilson. Amer. Orn. 1810. 2:133. pi. 17, fig. 1 

 Carduelis pinus DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 167, fig. 136 

 Spinus pinus A. 0. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 250. No. 533 



spinus, Lat., thorn tree, spina, a spine or thorn; pinus, Lat., pine tree 



Description. Sexes similar. Shaped like the Goldfinch but slightly 

 shorter, the bill more slender; upper parts grayish brown streaked with 

 dusky; under parts whitish tinged with buffy, streaked with blackish; wing 

 bars whitish; the bases of the tail feathers, except the middle pair, and 

 bases of the wing feathers bright yellow showing in flight as yellow patches 

 at base of tail and in the wing. Young birds have the under parts more 

 tinged with yellowish and the wing bars ocherous instead of white. 



Length 5 inches; extent 8.63; wing 2.76; tail 1.9; bill .43; tarsus .47. 



Distribution. The Siskin or Pine finch inhabits North America from 

 central Alaska, southern Keewatin and southern Ungava to the mountains 



