THE SISKIN. 97 



THE SISKIN. 



THIS is a diminutive, green-colored fellow, very unpretentious in color, and is very 

 well known in our larger cities by the number of them which form the stock in 

 trade, or, rather, the brains, of numerous itinerant venders of fortunes (never bad 

 ones) on street-corners. The birds are usually seen in a long box-cage, with a 

 trough attached, containing a number of envelopes ; and, on the payment of a trifling 

 fee, one will poke his head through the bars, and select the envelope which contains 

 the written secret of your future life. He is one of the easiest of birds to teach 

 simple tricks ; and whether it is in performing the feat of firing off a cannon many 

 times his size, or drawing his tiny bucket of water for his daily drink, he performs 

 them in such an accommodating manner as to leave the impression that he enjoys 

 the performance as much as does the spectator. It is chiefly for the ease with 

 which he learns to perform that he is prized. Siskins are very numerous through- 

 out Europe, where they remain the entire year. He is four and three-quarters 

 inches in length. The top of the head and throat are black ; the neck and cheeks 

 green ; the back, green, speckled with black ; the under part of the neck and the 

 breast are greenish yellow ; the belly and vent whitish yellow. The wing- feathers 

 are black, bordered with yellowish green : the tail is forked. The female is paler 

 in color, and is without the black on top of the head. They are favorite birds to 

 mate with Canaries ; and handsome specimens are produced where the male Siskin 

 is bred with a high-colored female Canary, although success is more certain if 

 mated with a female green Canary. The male birds combine both beauty and song 

 to a marked degree. 



The Siskin should be fed on poppy or maw seed, mixed in equal proportions 

 with plain canary-seed, and occasionally a few grains of hemp, the latter as a re- 

 ward, when the bird is in training. He is remarkably free from disease, his chief 

 ailment being epilepsy. He lives caged to the age of about eight years. The song 

 is quite pleasing, being a combination of pretty chirps, and is given throughout the 

 year. The bird is sociable, and, as he is not of a quarrelsome disposition, is quite 

 an attraction for the aviary, where he has room to display his gymnastic qualities. 

 The regular Canary-cage is the most suitable for him. 



