62 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 
distribution of the Siskin is much more general, extending into Western Scotland 
and the South of England. 
The adult male has the general colouring of the upper parts olive-green with 
darker shaft-streaks, the rump much more yellow, showing the shaft-streaks dis- 
tinctly at the junction with the lower part of the back; crown of head black; 
wings black, the coverts tipped with yellow, the flights with white diffused borders 
to the inner web excepting towards the tips, the primaries narrowly margined with 
yellow and, excepting the first three, with broad yellow bases, forming a belt which 
extends across the secondaries: central tail-feathers blackish, the remainder yellow, 
with black shafts and broad blackish tips; a broad superciliary streak extending 
from above the eye to the nape; lores blackish; sides of face greenish yellow, 
more green on the ear-coverts; chin black; throat and breast bright yellow; belly 
white, the flanks sordid yellowish, streaked with black: beak horn-brown, paler at 
the base (becoming paler and pinker in confinement); feet pale brown (also be- 
coming more fleshy in captivity); iris dark brown. The female is slightly smaller 
and has a broader crown than the male, she is altogether duller and greyer in 
colouring, with less yellow on the rump, wings, and tail, and with the underparts 
much more streaked; she has also no black on the crown or chin. The young 
are still duller and greyer than the female. 
The Siskin is a bird of the pine woods during the breeding season, though 
in winter it wanders about the country in small or sometimes large flocks, which 
reach the south of England in September, and are eagerly welcomed by the bird- 
catchers who net considerable numbers to sell as cage-birds. The Siskin is an 
extremely restless bird, and in all its actions reminds one strongly of the Tit-mice; 
its flight is rapid but irregular, like its song; but the latter to my mind is superior 
to that of any other British Finch, in spite of its comical finish with six coupled 
notes and a harsh’ chair at the end. The call-note is neither gée, zeisig, nor a weak 
fit-tit-tit-tit ; it is distinctly Aootelee, hootelee; the word glee is doubtless a corruption 
of the ¢e/ee (which is all that the ear can compass in the open, though in an aviary 
with sloping roof the whole sound is clearly audible); the term zeds7g probably was 
given to this bird by the Germans more on account of its frivolous nature, than 
because it in the slightest degree represented the character of either song or call- 
note; * I can only explain the quadrupled “#7, on the assumption that a party of 
young Robins happened to be in a tree occupied by Siskins. 
Mr. R. J. Ussher’s notes on this species, which I quoted in my ‘“ Handbook 
of British Oology,” will bear repeating here; he says:—‘‘In April and May, 1857, 
Siskins were unusually common at Cappagh, in the woods of fir, both on the low 
* The Mealy Redpoll is sometimes called ‘“‘Letnzeisig.” 
