SERIN FINCH— GOLDFINCH 149 



years later it appeared in Hanau, and in 1883 it was first seen in Wiirzburg. It 

 is supposed to have arrived in Lorraine about 1830, then, following the course of 

 the Moselle, it was recorded at Neuwied on the Rhine as a nesting-bird in 1857. 

 From Hungaiy, where it was frequent, and from Vienna, where it has been 

 abundant since 1879, it has migrated to Bavaria. In 1859 it appeared at Bensen 

 on the Moldau ; more than five years later it had advanced sixteen miles farther 

 on to Budweis. In 1870 it was seen occasionally at Schandau in Saxon Switzer- 

 land, and also in the Bielagrunde. Eighteen years earlier it had been observed 

 near Dresden, and in 1859 it had unsuccessfully tried to settle in the valley of the 

 Elster. In 1871 a pair succeeded in nesting there ; these were followed by another 

 the next year, and in 1873 seven pairs were established near Gera. The serin 

 entered upper Silesia along the line of the Danube, March, and Oder. At 

 Breslau it was frequently seen in 1866, although twenty years earlier it was 

 unknown there. In the Lausitz, solitary birds were seen in 1850 ; but from year to 

 year they increased and invaded the adjoining parts of Saxony, and towards 1880 

 the serin reached Frankfort-on-the-Oder and Berlin. 



The serin is a lively, merry bird, spending most of its time in trees, but hopping 

 about on the ground with equal briskness, hunting for its food, which consists 

 mainly of seeds, especially those of an oily or mealy nature. It nests in low 

 fruit-trees, high bushes, and even in rose-bushes. The artistically interwoven 

 nest is lined with hair, sometimes with feathers, occasionally only with willow 

 catkins, and is generally built in the upper branches. At the beginning of 

 May it contains four or five eggs, marked with red spots and blotches on 

 a greenish grey or dirty white ground. After the second hatching several 

 families associate together, and fly about the feeding-places until the time 

 for migration. When nesting begins the male birds do everything possible to 

 demonstrate their affection for their mates. They are most active on fine spring 

 days, when they amuse themselves by a curious playful fluttering ; and, when 

 near the nest, sing in their peculiarly rapid and almost chirping manner, re- 

 sembling the playing of a zither as well as the song of the grasshopper-warbler, 

 although far merrier and less monotonous. When singing they stretch themselves 

 almost flat on a branch, trill most energetically, bristle their neck-feathers, spread 

 out the tail as much as possible, sway from side to side, flutter suddenly into the 

 air, and then return to the same perch to continue their song. In Germany, if 

 the winter be mild, many of these birds remain on the Rhine and Main, and in 

 the south, where they inhabit the highest mountain-forests, they cannot be 

 regarded as real birds-of-passage, since they only descend from the mountains to 

 the warmer plains. From central Germany, however, they depart in families in 

 the autumn, to return in spring, when they at once become noticeable by their 

 lively chirping. 



The haunts of the serin are usually also those of the goldfinch 

 (Carduelis elegans), a handsomer bird of similar habits, with an 

 inordinate preference for thistles, and distinguishable from its ally, apart from 

 coloration, by the beak being nearly conical but slightly compressed with a sharp 

 and slender point. The goldfinch's familiar haunt is the outer strip of a wide, open 

 wood, in which the deciduous trees are of many kinds, and not particularly close 



