fclOTES AND QUERIES. 811 



would make a point of ascertaining, first of all, to which of the two forms 

 their records relate, giving the result of their examination. — J. Backhouse 

 (Harrogate). 



Crossbills and Siskins breeding in Co. Waterford.— The Crossbills 

 that bred here last year (Zool. 1890, p. 199) seem to have deserted us, but 

 have teen replaced this spring by several pairs of Siskins, birds equally 

 deserving of the name of gipsy migrants. Since my former notice of this 

 species (Zool. 1883, p. 493), I have seldom seen Siskins in the breeding 

 season, and until this year have not seen a nest here since 1857. On the 

 21st April last a Siskin's nest was pointed out to me, far out from the trunk, 

 on a long pendent branch of an old silver fir, over forty feet from the 

 ground, overhanging the road that leads to my stables. So dense was the 

 foliage that I could hardly distinguish the nest, but I repeatedly saw the 

 Siskins going to it, first alighting on bare sprays of the branch, and then 

 creeping into it. On the 5th May, the young Siskins having been heard 

 from the nest, my coachman ascended the silver fir, and five little Siskins, 

 fully fledged, took flight successively to. neighbouring trees. We caught 

 and caged two. The parents, especially the old male, approached us closely 

 with solicitous cries. The nest is not placed on the main stem of the 

 branch, but on one of the fan-like expansions growing over it, another of 

 which, dense with green foliage or needles of the fir, overspread it, and con- 

 cealed it from Magpies, just leaving head-room for the Siskins to enter and 

 leave it. Unlike the nest described by Mr. Ellison (Zool. 1886, p. 340), 

 this wanted the foundation of twigs, being composed of green moss, with a 

 few tufts of silvery lichens and root-fibres, white hairs and old thistle-down. 

 Within were a few feathers, with finer vegetable down, hairs, &c. Four or 

 five other pairs of Siskins frequent groups of similar old silver and Scotch 

 firs in other parts of the demesne this spring, leaving no doubt that they 

 are breeding there. On the 18th May a pair of Siskins were discovered to 

 be completing a new nest on a long branch of a larch not twenty feet from 

 the ground, close to where I had repeatedly observed Siskins, and heard one 

 sing on 31st March and 5th April. It was in the same group of trees in 

 which a pair of Crossbills bred last year, on the hill not very far from the 

 site of the last nest. I saw the female enter the nest and wriggle round, 



, as though settling it, and heard the male on the 18th and following days 

 warbling on an adjoining tree. On the 24th and 25th the hen bird was 

 observed to be sitting in the nest, and on the 26th I took it. It was over- 

 shadowed by sprigs of the larch, as the two former nests had been by tufts 



, of the Scotch and silver firs. It partly rested on the main stem of the 

 branch, and partly on offshoots, and was composed of green moss mixed 

 with a little sheep's wool, and lined with fine dried grass-stems and hairs. 



jit contained four eggs, large for a Siskin, with the pale blue ground colour 

 of our native Siskin's eggs, sparingly marked with pale red, and some few 



