Siskin. PASSERES. FRINGILLA. 283, 
ving migrated into this part of the country, though I have 
not remitted my search and inquiries after them in their usual 
haunts.—The same uncertainty attends their appearance in 
France, and in other parts of the Continent, as we learn from 
Burrow and some other writers. The true habitat of this 
bird appears to be in the northern part of Europe, as it is 
plentiful in Sweden, Norway, and the north of Germany.— 
In the neighbourhood of London it is called Aberdevine, and 
is occasionally met with by the bird-catchers, who obtain a 
considerable price for it, although its song is said to be below 
mediocrity ; the contrary of which: is asserted by-Bewicx, 
who kept a caged siskin, and says that “ the song, though 
not so loud as that of the canary, is pleasing and sweetly va- 
rious.” Wittoucuey tells us, that in Sussex the siskin is 
called the Barley Bird, as it makes its appearance at the 
time of sowing that grain ; and this assertion, later compilers 
have implicitly echoed, though I am inclined to think that 
the above appellation will be found attached to the yellow 
waetail, first seen about that time, and not to the siskin, 
which has usually left the country before that period.—Ac- 
cording to Temmtinck, it builds in the highest branches of Nest, &c. 
the pine, thus accounting for the nest having escaped the re- 
searches of the earlier ornithologists. —The eggs aye four or 
five in number, of a bluish-white, speckled with purplish-red. 
Its food, in addition to the seeds of the alder and birch, com- Food. 
prises those of the pine, elm, maple, &c. It is easily ta- 
med, and, like the goldfinch, may be taught a variety of 
tricks. In a confined state, it readily breeds with the canary 
finch. 
Prats 55. Fig. 6. Male bird. Natural size. 
Forehead, crown of the head, and throat black. Mapes of General 
the neck black, intermixed with siskin-green. Behind Ses"? 
the ear is a broad streak of sulphur-yellow. Neck, 
breast, base and margins of quill and tail feathers bright 
sulphur-yellow, inclining in some parts to gamboge-yel- 
