SISKIN. 131 



at the beginning of the present century many of our ornitho- 

 logists seem to have had hut little personal acquaintance with 

 it, and Montagu, who had the widest experience of them, says 

 he had only met with a single example at large. Throughout 

 Scotland and Ireland it appears very generally, but there is 

 a belief that in the former its numbers are diminishing, and 

 in the latter it is certainly scarcer than in Great Britain. 



This species has not been recorded from Orkney, but 

 it doubtless occurs there for it is a visitor, though rare, 

 to Shetland in winter. In the Scandinavian peninsula it is 

 said to breed so far to the north as lat. 67, and is found in 

 the mountains as high as the fir-trees grow, but in the 

 extreme south of Sweden it is known only as a winter-bird. 

 In Finland it seems to be more universally distributed, and, 

 being very common throughout the summer at Kajana, most 

 likely breeds still further to the northward, while a few may 

 possibly remain during the winter. It is said to be common 

 near Archangel, and, though its northern limits cannot be 

 defined, it stretches thence to the eastward across Siberia 

 and is found in Japan, where it is caught in large numbers 

 for caging, being as great a favourite with the people of that 

 country as with ourselves. In China it is found in winter 

 at Foochow, but its southern range in Asia can no more be 

 traced than its northern limits. All that can be said is that 

 it is not yet known from India. It occurs abundantly about 

 Smyrna, but does not seem to cross the eastern half of the 

 Mediterranean. In Algeria it is said to appear but rarely 

 and only in severe weather,. but it is also recorded not only 

 from Morocco, but even from the Canaries, where it is stated 

 to breed. Throughout Europe as a whole it is generally 

 distributed most commonly as an irregular winter-migrant 

 and often in vast flocks ; but it is known to breed in many 

 hilly districts of the south, and towards the north, as in 

 Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Prussia, among fir- woods. 



The adult male in summer has the bill orange-brown : 

 the irides dusky brown : the lores and top of the head black ; 

 above each eye a yellow band runs backward, and a short 

 line of the same lies below it ; the cheeks and ear-coverts are 



