178 SERIN. 
to North-western India, is found .S. pusé//us, the male of which has 
a red forehead and black throat and cheeks. The Serin has been 
introduced in the United States. 
The nest, placed in the fork of some tree or about breast-high 
in a bush, is built of fine roots, bents, lichens and grey moss, with 
a lining of softer materials, The 4-5 eggs are pale greenish-white, 
with light reddish-brown spots and a few darker blotches: measure- 
ments ‘61 by ‘47 in. The food chiefly consists of various kinds of 
seeds. The song resembles the word zé-z¢ often repeated, and a 
flock of birds settled in a tree produces a peculiar buzzing or 
almost hissing sound. 
Adult male in breeding-plumage : forehead, a line over each eye, 
rump, throat and breast, bright yellow ; cheeks and upper parts olive, 
with dark brown streaks ; greater wing-coverts and secondaries edged 
with dull white ; quills and tail brown, margined with pale yellow ; 
belly white; flanks boldly streaked with brown; bill horn-brown ; 
legs pale brown. Length 4°5; wing 2°7 in. Female: much less 
yellow and more striated. In winter both sexes are duller in colour ; 
while the young in their first autumn exhibit hardly any yellow tint. 
Examples of the subspecies Sevizus canaria, peculiar to the 
Canaries, Madeira and the Azores, have been taken in England, 
and, although cages-full are known to be imported, there are persons 
who wish to believe that the individuals captured are not escaped 
birds, but genuine wanderers from a warm to an inhospitable climate ! 
The aforesaid Rev. W. Hazel has stated (Nat. 1853, p. 20) that the 
African Serinus icterus ( Crithagra chrysopyga of Swainson), was taken 
near Portsmouth. Mr. Langton has recorded (Zool. 1886, p. 490) 
that, among the rarities obtained by the late Mr. Swaysland of 
Brighton, there was a “Citril Finch” taken alive on October rath ; 
but on examination the bird proved to be a freely-imported South 
African species, Serinus canicollis, another specimen of which has 
since been captured. Montagu mentioned an example of the American 
Cyanospiza cirts, taken near Portland in 1802, which he, with his 
accustomed good sense, naturally presumed to have escaped from 
confinement. Another American species, the ‘ White-throated 
Sparrow,” Zonotrichia albicollis (which is really a Bunting), having 
been obtained near Aberdeen, was included and figured by the 
late R. Gray in his ‘Birds of the West of Scotland.’ A second 
example has been taken near Brighton; and Mr. Cordeaux has 
recorded (Zool. 1893, p. 149) an adult male shot in Holderness, on 
February 13th, while feeding with other “pensioners.” 
