SERIN FINCH. 101 



weather, and sings continually from the tops of the 

 trees, and delights especially in flying from one to the 

 other, sometimes soaring and sometimes fluttering aloft, 

 and flying straight clown again like the Tree Pipit. 

 In its usual flight it resembles the Siskin, moving 

 quickly from place to place, and uttering its peculiar 

 note, which has been compared to that of the Siskin, 

 the Goldfinch, and Canary-bird. The song has much 

 variation, and may be heard at the breeding-place all 

 day long, and from March till far into August. It is 

 a favourite cage-bird, assorting by choice with Siskins, 

 Goldfinches, and Canaries, and it may, like these birds, 

 be taught many performances. 



Like other Finches, the Serin feeds on seeds, es- 

 pecially those grown in gardens, and it prefers the 

 oleaginous to the farinaceous. Naumann mentions par- 

 ticularly cabbage, hemp, and poppy, rape, turnip, 

 radish, and lettuce seed, for which it lays contributions 

 on the cultivator, and for which it is doubtless often 

 shot and trapped. The wild seeds which it seems to 

 prefer, are dandelion, hawk cabbage, chicory, the 

 grasses, and even, when driven to it, oats. In autumn 

 it seeks its food among the alders and birches. 



Its nest is much more frequently found on fruit 

 and walnut-trees than on beech, oak, or alder. It is 

 in position more like the nest of the Goldfinch than 

 the Linnet, placed in a forked bough, not very high, 

 or in the lowest branches; in bushes and dwarf fruit 

 trees, but not in low bushes. The nest is sometimes 

 like that of the Goldfinch, at others more like the 

 Greenfinches, but smaller, very narrow, rounded, and 

 lined with more skill than the latter. It is formed of 

 small roots, woven together with old twigs, which are 

 however, sometimes wanting. The inside is tolerably 



