PINE SISKIN. 351 



PINE SISKIN. 



pine finch. pine linnet. 



Spinus pinus. 



Char. Above, olive brown or dark flaxen, streaked with dusky ; 

 wings and tail black, the feathers edged with yellow ; wings with two 

 huffish bars ; below streaked with dusky and yellowish white. Length 

 about 4^ inches. 



Nest. Usually in a deep forest, on a horizontal branch of an evergreen 

 tree 20 to 40 feet from the ground. It is fairly well built, as a rule, 

 but is neither as compact nor graceful as the Thistle Bird's, and is com- 

 posed of various materials, though generally grass, twigs, and pine-needles 

 form the exterior, while the lining iseither feathers or hair, or both. 



Eggs. 3-5 ; pale green or greenish blue spotted with light reddish 

 brown and lilac; 0.70 X 0.50. 



Our acquaintance with this little northern Goldfinch is very 

 unsatisfactory. It visits the Middle States in November, fre- 

 quents the shady, sheltered borders of creeks and rivulets, and 

 is particularly fond of the seeds of the hemlock-tree. Among 

 the woods, where these trees abound, these birds assemble in 

 flocks, and contentedly pass away the winter. Migrating for 

 no other purpose but subsistence, their visits are necessarily 

 desultory and uncertain. My friend Mr. Oakes, of Ipswich, 

 has seen them in large flocks in that vicinity in winter. With 

 us they are rare, though their favorite food is abundant. They 

 are by no means shy, and permit a near approach without tak- 

 ing alarm, often fluttering among the branches in which they 

 feed, hanging sometimes by the cones, and occasionally utter- 

 ing notes very similar to those of the American Goldfinch. 

 Early in March they proceed to the North, and my friend 

 Audubon observed them in families, accompanied by their 

 young, in Labrador in the month of July. They frequented 

 low thickets in the vicinity of water, and were extremely fear- 

 less and gentle. Their summer plumage, as we have since 

 also found in the Oregon Territory, where they abound and 

 breed, is entirely similar to the garb in which they visit us in 

 the winter, with the sole exception that the yellow of the wings 

 is brighter. 



