926 KEPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



favorite food. In winter the seeds of grasses, rag-weeds, horse-weeds, 

 and occasionally sycamore, are eaten. 



They are very tame. In summer they often make their homes in 

 orchards, lawns, and even among the fruit and shade trees of our 

 towns. In autumn the garden is a favorite place. In winter they are 

 6ften found ahout the barnyards and adjacent shrubbery. 



Prof. F. H. King examined 34 stomachs and found they had eaten 

 20 plant lice, and the remainder of their contents was chiefly weed 

 seeds. He says the service which the Thistle Bird does in destroying 

 the seeds of the almost uncontrollable Canada Thistle throughout the 

 Eastern and Middle States must be very great (Geol. Wis., I., p. 535). 

 Dr. Wheaton says they eat the Hessian Fly. . 



204. (533). Spinus pinus. (WiLs.). 



Pine Siskin. 

 Synonym, PINE FINCH. 



"Tail deeply forked; above, brownish-olive; beneath, whitish, every 

 feather streaked distinctly with dusky; concealed bases of tail feathers 

 and quills, together with their inner edges, sulphur-yellow; outer 

 edges of quills and tail feathers, yellowish-green. Two brownish- 

 white bands on the wing. Sexes alike. Young. Similar, but the 

 white below tinged with yellow, the upper parts with reddish-brown, 

 and there are two pale ochraceous bands on the wing." 



Length, 4.50-5.25; wing, 2.75-2.90; tail, 1.85-1.95. (B. B. and E.). 



RANGE. North America, from Mexico (Vera Cruz) north into Brit- 

 ish provinces. Breeds from south New England, New York, the south- 

 ern limit of its range in Mexico, northward, but mostly north of 

 United States. 



Nest, in coniferous trees, of grasses, rootlets (near settled places, 

 string, threads, etc.); lined with finer material of the same kind, hair 

 and feathers. Eggs, 4; pale bluish-white, spotted and blotched with 

 reddish or dark brown, vinaceous, sometimes lines of same color; .61 

 by .47. 



More or less regular winter migrant, and rare winter resident. 

 Sometimes found in great numbers, in flocks, occasionally associating 

 with Goldfinches, in winter, and with Purple Finches, in spring. They 

 resemble the Goldfinches in action, in fall and winter, too, but not in 

 song. Their note is a single wheezy syllable, which may be expressed 

 as "Cree," sometimes highest at the end, again highest on the first 

 vowel, and falling towards its close. Some years they arrive in Octo- 

 ber, others in November. They arrived at Wabash early in October, 



