SEBIN FINCH. 27 



to branch, very mucli like the Siskin or Common Linnet, and it wil- 

 lingly associates with these birds, particularly the Siskin. They are 

 generally seen in pairs or small flocks, and the pairs do not seem to 

 separate during the whole year, but ''cling to each other with the 

 utmost affection and tenderness." If one is accidentally separated from 

 the other, they call assiduously until they are again united. 



The male is very lively in the beautiful spring weather, and sings 

 continually from the tops of the trees, and delights especially in flying 

 from one to the other, sometimes soaring and sometimes fluttering 

 aloft, and flying straight down again like the Tree Pipit. In its usual 

 flight it resembles the Siskin, moving quickly from place to place, 

 and uttering its peculiar note, which has been compared to that of the 

 Siskin, the Goldfinch, and Canary-bird. The song has much variation, 

 and may be heard at the breeding-place all day long, and from March 

 till far into August. It is a favourite cage-bird, assorting by choice 

 with Siskins, Goldfinches, and Canaries, and it may, like these birds, 

 be taught many j)erformances. 



Like other Finches, the Serin feeds on seeds, especially those grown 

 in gardens, and it prefers the oleaginous to the farinaceous. Naumann 

 mentions particularly cabbage, hemp, and poppy, rape, turnij), radish, 

 and lettuce seed, for which it lays contributions on the cultivator, 

 and for which it is doubtless often shot and trapped. The wild seeds 

 which it seems to prefer, are dandelion, hawk cabbage, chicory, the 

 grasses, and even, when driven to it, oats. In autumn it seeks its 

 food among the alders and birches. 



Its nest is much more frequently found on fruit and walnut-trees 

 than on beech, oak, or alder. It is in position more like the nest 

 of the Goldfinch than the Linnet, placed in a forked bough, not very 

 high, or in the lowest branches; in bushes and dwarf fruit trees, but 

 not in low bushes. The nest is sometimes like that of the Goldfinch, 

 at others more like the Greenfinches, but smaller, very narrow, 

 rounded, and lined with more skill than the latter. It is formed of 

 small roots, woven together with old twigs, which are, however, some- 

 times wanting. The inside is tolerably deep, and made soft and warm 

 with feathers, and generally a large quantity of horse-hair, and single 

 pigs' bristles, which secure a smooth resting-place for the eggs, and 

 make, as JSTaumann justly remarks, one of the prettiest of nests. 



The eggs are about the size of the Siskins', but shorter and rounder, 

 very tender-shelled, and in colour resembling the Linnets', having a 

 ground of greenish white, with solitary dots and short streaks of a 

 dull or dark blood red, or reddish brown, forming a kind of wreath 

 oftentimes round the larger end. They sit fourteen days, and this 



