THE SISKIN. 61 
are stragglers to Great Britain or escaped cage-birds; Seebohm insisted that they 
were the former, because they showed no evidence of having been in captivity, 
although the same might be said of most birds which have been carefully attended 
to in spacious aviaries. Howard Saunders did not hesitate to regard them as freed 
captives, observing that ‘‘although cages-full are known to be imported, there are 
persons who wish to believe that the individuals captured are not escaped birds, 
but stragglers from a warm to an inhospitable climate.’ Here again, the same 
might be said of other species with equal fairness, yet I think he is probably 
correct. 
Family—FRINGILLIDA. Subfamily—FPRINGILLINAE. 
THE SISKIN. 
Chrysomitris spinius, LANN. 
HE distribution of the Siskin or Aberdevine* extends throughout Europe to 
the limit of conifer growth: in Africa it is said to occur during severe 
winters in Morocco and Algeria; it is also found in Northern Asia, and across 
Siberia to China and Japan. 
In Great Britain during the summer months the Siskin is chiefly confined to 
the fir-woods of the north, consequently it is somewhat local in its distribution ; 
in some parts of Scotland and Ireland it is fairly abundant as a breeding species, 
as also in some of the northern counties of England: it has, moreover, been 
known occasionally to breed in Surrey, Sussex, and I am tolerably sure that it 
has bred at Keston, in Kent, near to the lakes, where there is a belt of tall con- 
ifers, for I saw a pair there early in June, 1886, and heard the male singing its 
sprightly song, with the unmistakeable hurdy-gurdy finish. In the winter the 
* Generally called “’Appy divine” by the London bird-catchers; but one man who called occasionally, 
used always to ask if I wanted any ‘“4ddzes,” 
Vor. II. L, 
