302 NOTES ON THE 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Bright gamboge-yellow; crown, wings and tail black; lesser 
wing coverts, band across the end of the greater ones; end of 
secondaries and tertiaries, inner margins of tail feathers, upper 
and under tail coverts and tibia, white. 
Length, 5.25; wing, 3. 
Habitat, North America generally. 
SPINUS PINUS (Witson). (533.) 
PINE SISKIN. 
This bird resembles the Goldfinch so remarkably in many of 
its habits us to have left no good reason for its specific differ- 
ence, but in others it is so characteristic that the reasons are 
evident and satisfactory. It arrives here from some lower lati- 
tude about the first of April and remains, feeding mostly like 
the goldfinch, until about the first of June, when it is seldom 
seen except in coniferous timber where it breeds. I have never 
seen its nest, but find considerable discrepancy in the descrip- 
tions of different writers. Dr. Brown says it is ‘‘neat, is made 
of pine twigs, and lined with hair.” Dr. Merriam says the 
nests are ‘‘a very bulky structure for so small a bird, and its 
rough exterior loosely built of hemlock twigs, with a few sprigs 
of pigeon moss interspersed, is irregular in outline, and meas- 
ures about six inches in diameter. The interior, on the con- 
trary is compactly woven into a sort of felt, the chief ingredi- 
ents of which are thistle-down, and the fur and hair of various 
mammals.” 
The same authority says of the winter of 1878: ‘During the 
past winter and spring they literally swarmed in Lewis county, 
New York, and thousands of them bred throughout the heavy 
evergreen forests east of Black river, while many scattered 
pairs nested in suitable hemlock and balsam swamps in the 
middle districts.” It is certain that Dr. Merriam’s observa- 
tions radically differ from any of my own, and where he further 
records the taking of eggs as early as March 18th, and the 
presence of the young in April, I am astonished, for while 
there may have been other similar observations in like lati- 
tudes I have never had them. 
As before stated, these birds reach Minnesota early in April, 
after which they are often seen, both in small parties of their 
own, and associated with the Goldfinches. At the time of 
their arrival, and for some time afterwards, the casual obser- 
ver would scarcely distinguish the two species, or the sexes of 
