107 



SISKIN. 



ABERDEVINE. 



Carduelis spinus, MACGILLIVRAY. 



Fringilla spinus, LINX^KUS. LATHAM. 



Carduelis A bird that feeds on thistles. CardwisA. thistle. 



Spinus ? Spinus A thorn.? 



THOUGH inferior to the G-oldfinch in beauty of plumage, 

 the Siskin is its equal in pleasing neatness the one, as it 

 were, embodying the striking beauty- of the orange, and the 

 other the more chastened and sober hue of the lemon, in the 

 general tone of its colour. 



It inhabits Russia, Norway, and Sweden, Austria, France, 

 Holland, and Italy, and has been once met with in Corfu; 

 it is found also in Asia, in Japan, according to M. Temminck. 



In this country it is but locally distributed, and therefore 

 an uncommon bird, though found in tolerable plenty where, 

 or rather when, it occurs. In Yorkshire it is tolerably com- 

 mon in some winters near Sheffield, Halifax, Doncaster, 

 Barnsley, Hebden- Bridge, and York, as also in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Bridlington. When at school, at Bromsgrove, 

 in Worcestershire, I and my schoolfellows used to shoot several 

 of these birds out of pretty considerable flocks, which used 

 occasionally to frequent the gardens near the town, and more 

 generally the alder trees by the side of Charford brook. I 

 just missed seeing them in April this year, 1852, in the 

 same neighbourhood, namely, at Stoke Prior, lower down the 

 said stream, where my friend the Rev. Harcourt Aldham, 

 vicar of that parish, had seen a flock several times just 

 before I visited him. They were, as usual, hanging about 

 the alder trees which fringe the borders of the brook. The 

 Rev. R. P. Alington has only known one near Swinhope, 



