BIRDS 135 



Metcalfe of Kendal reminds me of the following notice of its 

 presence, as furnished by Mr. H. E. Dresser : ' Mr. Metcalfe 

 informs me that it [the Siskin] is, as a rule, a rare winter 

 visitant in Westmorland and Cumberland, but that, in November 

 1872, a cottager at Kendal brought one to him which he had 

 knocked down with a sod out of a flock which were feeding on 

 the groundsel in his garden.' 1 In Cumberland it is very local, 

 but one or two localities in the neighbourhood of Carlisle are 

 frequented by Siskins every winter, — a fact well recognised by 

 our bird-catchers, who always resort to the most favourite feeding- 

 grounds of these birds to capture a few of their number. In the 

 autumn of 1866, extraordinary numbers of Siskins appeared in 

 the neighbourhood of Allonby, a phenomenon that has never 

 since been repeated in the experience of Mr. Mann. The greater 

 part of these large flights passed on westwards, but a few birds 

 spent the winter near Allonby. Mr. T. C. Heysham wrote that, 

 'on the 26th of March [1829] some males [Siskins] were 

 observed in full song, and repeatedly chasing the females ; so it 

 is possible a few may occasionally remain and breed. A few 

 were seen on the 5th of April.' Though I have seen Siskins in 

 pairs as late as Heysham did, I have had no better success in 

 my search for local nests than fell to his share. Yet this species 

 bred for several years at Netherby. James Plenderleath, the 

 head keeper on the estate (a bird-fancier as well as a good out- 

 door observer), informs me that he has not known any Siskins 

 to spend the summer in the plantations round Longtown since 

 1885. He believes that the local ' breed ' was ' caught out ' in 

 February of that year. But, for several years prior to this, he 

 had always noticed about three pairs in summer, in different 

 parts of his woods. Once he watched a female Siskin busily 

 employed in building a nest at the end of one of the topmost 

 branches of a Scotch fir. He subsequently sent a boy up the 

 tree, but the nest was empty, and he thought that the eggs must 

 have been shaken out by a violent gale. At any rate, the old 

 birds reared a brood, because, later in the same season, he came 

 across the male Siskin feeding at the roadside in company with 

 four newly-fledged birds. 



1 Birds of Europe, vol. iii. p. 543. 



