The Pine Siskin iSpimis pi^ns) 



By C. W. Bowles 



Synonyms. — American Siskin ; Pine Finch : Pine Linnet. 



Description. — Adult male and female: Above brownish biiffy ; below creamy- 

 bufl and whitish ; everywhere streaked with dusky or dark oHve-brown : the 

 streakings are finer on the head and fore-parts, coarser on back and breast ; wings 

 fuscous, the flight-feathers sulphur-yellow at the base, and the primaries edged 

 with the same color : tail fuscous, all but the middle feathers sulphur-yellow at 

 base. Bill comparatively slender, acute. Length 4.75-5.00 T 120.6-127.') • wing 

 2.75 (69.9) ; tail 1.80 ( 45.7) ; bill .43 (10.9 ). 



Recognition !Marks. — W arbler size : conspicuous general streakiness. sulphur- 

 yellow markings of wings and tail, most noticeable in flight. 



Xest, of grasses, twigs and vegetable fibers, lined with hair, plant-down or 

 feathers, and placed, usually, high in coniferous trees. Eggs, 4, greenish or 

 bluish white, spotted with reddish brown. Av. size. .68x.47 (17.3x11.9). 



General Range. — Xorth America at large, breeding in higher latitudes and 

 in mountains of the \\'est : also, sparingly, in northeastern United States. 



The Pine Siskin is one of those happy-go-lucky mortals (he is mortal, is he 

 not?) whose habits are the despair of all guide-books. We know him for a 

 northern bird, and by all analogies he ought to quit our hospitable woods not 

 later than the middle of ^lay : but with the most reckless unconcern he lingers 

 through INIay and into Tune, until we are disposed to chide him for neglect of 

 the primal instinct, or else to wonder whether the rollicking, roving bands may 

 not have nests to watch that we know not of. Siskins have been found in 

 northern Ohio during every month of the year, but whether they nest or not is 

 still undetermined. 



Their actions were still more puzzling at my home in eastern Washington. 

 There we lived not above twenty miles from the timber-clad mountains where 

 they might have been supposed to breed, and yet roistering troops of them 

 made free with the shade trees of our front yard, as the whim seized them, 

 throughout every month of the year, save winter. Either these companies were 

 composed of young bachelors too frivolous to love, or else they were made up of 

 communists whose lives were too happy in general to permit them to think of 

 particularizing in their eltections. A recent writer asserts that they do nest in 

 small colonies, three or four pairs in a tree, and that it is difficult to determine 

 which particular bird is most interested in a given nest. 



In many respects the Siskins resemble their more familiar cousins, the Gold- 

 finches ; they cultivate a graceful, undulatory or looping flight, chirruping as 

 they go ; and Hke them they have *"a habit of singing in a lively, rambling sort 

 of way for an hour or more at a time." On the other hand their love of pine 

 trees and the seeds of pine cones links them closely to the Crossbills and their 



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