540 
6 
its full song; but a somewhat disconnected song I heard uttered by one I shot gave promise of 
much more melody than can be discovered in the song of the Serin Finch. Mr. Schiitt informs 
me that its song is clear and sweet, and has some affinity with that of the Canary, and also with 
the song of the Siskin. 
Unfortunately I did not succeed in finding a nest, owing chiefly to the extremely rugged 
nature of the ground, and the short sojourn I made there. It is, the shepherds told me, placed 
like that of the Serin Finch, on the branch of a tree, usually a fir, and, being small, is very 
difficult to find. It is either placed high up in the tree or else only a yard or two from the 
ground. Naumann says that it occasionally builds under the eaves of the roofs of the shepherds’ 
huts; but the herdsmen in the Black Forest told me that they had never known the nest to be 
placed anywhere except in a tree. A nest I had sent to me from Switzerland is rather larger 
and scarcely so neatly made as that of the Serin Finch, and is constructed of fine roots and a few 
grass-bents, intermixed with a little grey moss, and neatly lined with very fine hair-like rootlets 
intermixed with a little thistle-down anda very little wool. It appears that two broods are 
raised in the season; for, as above stated, I met with many very young birds in June, and the old 
ones were making arrangements for a second brood. I examined the crops and stomachs of 
those I shot, and found no trace of any thing but seeds. Some of the young birds I obtained 
were in the first plumage, and could not have long left the nest. 
The eggs of this Finch, of which I possess several clutches from Switzerland, resemble small 
Goldfinches’ eggs, being white with a pale sea-green or blue-green tinge, sparingly marked here 
and there with a pale red shell-blotch or a small dark red dot, but round the larger end marked 
with a wreath of pale red shell-blotches and deep brownish surface-spots, this wreath being 
much more strongly developed in some than in others. In size they vary from $§ by 4 inch to 
46 by 48 and 28 by 3d inch. 
The specimens figured on the first Plate are an old male shot just after the autumn moult, 
when in its best plumage, and a young bird, both from Baden; and on the second Plate I have 
deemed it advisable to figure the specimens obtained at Corsica by Lord Lilford, never having 
seen it figured in that plumage. 
In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens :— 
_E Mus. H. E. Dresser. 
a. Staufen, Baden, October. 6,3. St. Blasien, October 12th, 1855 (E. Schiitt). c,9. Belchen, Baden, 
June 14th, 1875 (HW. HE. D.). d,2,e,f,2,9,3, h, i, 7, k, 4S, m, juv., n, juv., 0, juv., p, juv.2. 
Kalberscheuer, Baden, June 1875 (H. FE. D.). gq, 3,7. Switzerland (Nager Donazian). 
E Mus. Howard Saunders. 
a, 3, 6,2. Near Grenoble, France. c. juv. Near Madrid, autumn of 1869 (Sanchez). 
E Mus. Lord Litford. 
a, 3, 6,2. Corsica, February 1875 (L.). 
