means easy to discover, are still rare in collections, and the breeding of the species so 

 far south of its usual summer home a noteworthy event; .yet it required no sUght 

 struggle -with tender feelings to decide to break up the happy home, even in behalf of 

 science, and of the museum whose ornithological interests I may be supposed to have 

 deeply at heart. 



"On May 12 I enlisted the services of my young nephew, R. T. Swezey, who kindly 

 ascended to the nest on a tour of observation, finding, as was anticipated, a full clutch 

 and the female sitting. She remained on the nest till his hand touched the branch on 

 which the nest rested, when she flew oiF with a great outcry and dashed frantically 

 about for some seconds, passing and repassing within a few yards of the nest, uttering 

 such plaintive notes of distress as to make the task of securing the prize indeed a sad 

 one. The nest was placed at the base of a bunch ot cones within a few inches of the 

 extremity of the branch, and being thoroughly shielded on all sides by the strongly 

 resisting, long, sharp needles, it was no easy matter to reach out to the nest and, in- 

 serting the hand, safely remove the coveted treasures." 



The nest contained four eggs of a pale bluish-white ground-color, speckled and 

 dotted with dark reddish-brown. "The nest was well-built, neat, and compact, and 

 quite large for the size of the bird. It measured 2.25 inches in inside diameter, 3.50 

 inches in outside diameter, 1.50 inches in depth (inside measurement). The base of the 

 nest is formed of string, thread, a long piece of tape, and rootlets woven into the pine 

 needles on which it rests, some of the strings and the tape being looped about and 

 bound to the clusters of the neecjles. On this rests a cup-shaped structure of coarse and 

 fine rootlets and soft vegetable fiber, lined with black horse-hair." The nest and its 

 contents are now in the American Museum of Natural History at New York. 



The Siskin is quite a hardy bird, wintering often in small numbers in southern 

 Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Like the Goldfinches they have a strong instinct for 

 sociability w^hich they show even in the breeding season, and it is stated that they 

 usually breed in communities, "large numbers occupying for that purpose the same tradt 

 of evergreen wood or swamp, sometimes shared by equal numbers of Crossbills." 



In the cage the Pine Siskin becomes very tame and much attached to its master. 

 It sings from early May to the end of July diligently. The notes are sweet, varied, 

 clear, and mellow, but they are perfectly distinct from those of the Goldfinch. In the 

 cage it requires the same care as the Canary-bird. 



NAMES: Pine Siskin, Pine Pinch, Pine Linnet. — Tannen-, Pichtenzeisig (German). 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Fringilla pinusViWs. (1810). L/naria p/«us Aud. (1839). Cfirrsomitris p/nns Bonap. 

 (1830). SPINUS PINUS Stejn. (1884). 



DESCRIPTION : Male and female: Above, grayish or brownish-oUve, below, whitish, plumage conspicuously 

 streaked with dusky. Concealed bases of quills and tail-feathers sulphur-yellow. Two brownish-white 

 bandit on wings. Tail, deeply forked. , "^ 



Length, 4.50 to 5.25 inches; wing, 2.75 to 2.90; tail, 1.85 to 1.95 inches. 



