The Pine Siskin 



Pine Siskin, I mention, as only one of many, a puzzling squeak heard 

 repeatedly near Trinidad, in Humboldt County. The squeak had the 

 quality and volume of the cry of the Fulvous Tree Duck. I should have 

 put it down to accidental resemblance and the source as a creaking red- 

 wood stump with fire-thinned shattered sides, but the notes were repeated- 

 ly and diversely heard with attendant znms. 



The Pine Siskin enjoys a peculiar and as yet 



imperfectly defined 

 distribution in the 

 breeding season. It 

 corresponds rough- 

 ly with that of ever- 

 green timber, but 

 makes exception of 

 the Digger Pine 

 (Pin us sabiniana 



Taken in Mono County Photo by the Author 



NEST AND EGGS OF PINE SISKIN. IN SITU: LAKE GEORGE 



Douglas), and, to a certain degree, of the Yellow Pine (P. ponder osa). 

 The birds' feeding forays include all alder trees which are flanked by 

 evergreen timber, but the alders which line the southern streams at the 

 lower levels are visited only in winter. 



Much of Siskin's food is obtained upon the ground. City lawns are 

 favorite places of resort; these birds, together with California Purple 

 Finches, appearing to derive more benefit from grass plots, whether 

 as granaries or insectaria, than does any other species. They share also 

 with Crossbills a strong interest in the products of fir trees, whether in 

 cone or leaf. Their peculiar province, however, is the alder catkin, and 

 the tiny white seeds obtained from this source are the staple supply of 

 winter. Mr. D. E. Brown, of Seattle, has examined specimens in which 

 the crops were distended by these seeds exclusively. While the observer 

 is ogling, it may be an over-modest Kadiak Sparrow, a flock of Pine 

 Siskins will charge incontinently into the alders above his very head. 

 With many zews and zeems they fall to work upon the stubborn catkins, 



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