204 Fringillidce. 



85. 'SISKIN' (Garduelis spinus). 



Better known in this country as a cage-bird, mated with the 

 canary, than in its wild state. It is, however, by no means a rare, 

 or scarcely an occasional visitant, some appearing amongst us 

 almost every year, and sometimes in great numbers, consorting 

 with Linnets and Redpoles, as Mr. Withers, of Devizes, testified. 

 It is a native of northern latitudes, and generally visits us in the 

 winter, when it may be seen clinging to the alder trees, the seeds 

 of which it especially loves. Willoughby, indeed, said that in 

 his day it was known as the ' Barley Bird,' because it arrived at 

 the time of barley-sowing. But this is contrary to modern ex- 

 perience, for the flocks which occasionally visit us certainly 

 appear in the autumn or early winter. The Rev. A. P. Morres, 

 however, gives it as his opinion that at times some will remain 

 throughout the year, and that it occasionally breeds in his dis- 

 trict, a birdcatcher in his parish having trapped, in July, 1871, a 

 party of seven, two of which were old birds and five evidently 

 young, and he had reason to believe that they also bred in the 

 neighbouring parish of Nunton. Lord Arundell has known it 

 brought in to him at Wardour ; Mr. Grant has had specimens 

 taken at Rowde and the outskirts of Devizes ; and the Rev. A. P. 

 Morres informs me that in February of this year (1887) Dr. 

 Blackmore saw a flock of eight birds on the birch-trees in the 

 Museum gardens at Salisbury. 



Though somewhat short and thick, it is by no means a clumsy 

 bird ; on the contrary, it is exceedingly graceful, and most rest- 

 less, resembling the Titmice in its almost incessant motions and 

 the variety of its attitudes. Its plumage is a mixture of green 

 and yellow, the former predominating ; it is also known as the 

 'Aberdevine.' In Sweden it is called Gron Siske, and in the 

 south of the country abounds in winter as well as in summer, 

 but resorts to the large pine forests for preference, where it 

 breeds. In France it is Le Tarin ; in Germany, Erlenzeisig, 

 * alder-finch ;' in Spain, Lubano ; and in Portugal, Vanario da 

 Franca. Spinus, says the B.O.U. Committee, is derived from 



