SERIN FINCH. 
103 
Serin Finch, F. sermus, I found that some wintered 
in Provence. I heard the song two or three times in 
December, and obtained a sjiecimen in January. They 
begin to sing again about the middle of February. 
By the middle of March their numbers had greatly 
increased by arrivals, and they were extremely abundant 
all along the edges of the pine Avoods, Avith Avhich all 
the higher ground of the country is coA’ered. They 
evidently frecjiuented the borders of culti\mted ground 
more than the interior of the Avood. The males Avere 
then in full song. From the middle of March the 
numbers gradually lessened till there were only some 
pairs left here and there breeding. 
^‘They build chiefly in gardens, more so than in 
pine Avoods. The nest is ahvays on a pine or cedar, 
from six to sixteen feet from the ground. On the 
14th. of April I saAv some young Serins out of the 
nest, but they could not flyj and on the 26th. I took 
a nest containing only tAvo fresh eggs. On my way 
home, I stayed some days at Fontainebleau. I cer- 
tainly did not hear these birds there, though the 
gardens round the palace seemed suitable for them, and 
I AAms sheAvn the skin of one said to have been ob- 
tained there. The Serin Finch is not found in 
Madeira. I have seen it at Cintra, near Lisbon, in 
June, but they are never numerous there then.” 
In Badeker’s Avork upon European eggs, I find the 
following remarks about this bird by Brehm: — “The 
Serin Finch inhabits the south of Europe, Asia Minor, 
and North Africa. In Germany it removes in a 
remarkable manner toAvards the north. I saAv it at 
Nuremberg in 1130, and for three years at Jena and 
Dresden. It comes into the south of Germany during 
the first fortnight in April. The half-boAvl-formed 
