266 fringillim:. 



The next winter, in which siskins were met with over a great 

 part of the island, was that of 1847-8, when they were observed in 

 the county of Wexford for the first time. They were seen there on 

 the 26th of November and subsequently.* About Cork they ap- 

 peared in considerable numbers jf as they did also at Ranelagh, near 

 Dublin, where they were first noticed in December, and remained 

 until the first or second week of April. J In these three localities 

 they were associated with the lesser redpole; and in the two latter, 

 were feeding on the seed of the alder. On the 11th of February, the 

 Bev. George Robinson informed me that siskins had been com- 

 mon for the previous month in the county of Armagh generally, in- 

 cluding the neighbourhood of his residence, near. Tandragee; 

 they came almost daily under his notice, unassociated with any 

 other species, and about fifty were sometimes in a flock. They fed 

 almost wholly on the alder, and looked beautiful, hanging like 

 little parrots, picking at the drooping seeds of that tree : — some 

 were killed feeding on thistles. They admitted of a close approach, 

 and during a recent snow-storm were killed with stones by boys. 

 On the 9th of March, they were last observed about Tandragee. 

 In the vicinity of Belfast, I first heard of them on Christmas day, 

 from which period until the end of February, they were observed 

 in various parts of the counties of Antrim and Down. On the 

 trees bordering the bay about Mertoun, it was said that about a 

 hundred would appear in a flock ; even some hundreds are stated 

 to have been seen together, on the wooded banks of Lough Neagh, 

 at Rockland. Some were described as hanging like titmice, feeding 

 on the seeds of the birch : and elegant tins graceful tree must 

 have appeared at such a time. 



An observant friend, residing in Ayrshire, saw several siskins 

 near Ballantrae, a few days before Christmas, 1839, — a season in 

 which they are not known to have visited Ireland, — and since 

 that period, they have often been common in winter, about the 



* Mr. Poole. 



f Dr. Harvey, who remarks that they visit a place ahout five miles from Cork, in 

 the winter, pretty regularly. 



X Report, Dublin Nat. Hist. Society, June 9th, 1848 ; where also the species is 

 said to have hcen obtained near the metropolis in "the winter of 1846." 



