BIRDS. 
125 
at Dornoch, and that birds are occasionally seen in his 
neighbourhood. St. John remarks upon it as being very 
rare even when he was in the county, 1848, but it was 
common then in comparison with the present time. " A 
pair were seen in a birch- wood on the banks of Loch 
Laoghal by Mr. James Wilson — one of Mr. Selby's party— 
in 1834." It has not been observed up to date at Tongue. 
" As a Caithness species, although by no means common, and 
but little known in its wild state, it yet can hardly be 
described as rare. Few seasons pass, indeed, without two 
or three of these beautiful and prized birds being observed 
in this neighbourhood. I have known of several instances 
of their being caught with a decoy bird, and even in the 
gins set for linnets, etc., in farmyards and near corn-stacks. 
Local bird-fanciers have a tradition of the nest of the gold- 
finch being found in Wick churchyard, and I believe one 
or two authenticated instances of its breeding in this neigh- 
bourhood are on record " (H. Osborne in MS.). 
Marked as occasional in S. and O.'s List (1862). 
Considered by us as one of the very rarest and most local 
of British — not to say Caithness — birds. 
84. Carduelis spinus {L.). Siskin. 
President; breeding about Dunrobin regularly, and probably 
does so through all the wooded districts of the south-east ; 
the nest, however, is extremely difficult to find, being placed 
on a pine-tree, and generally at the end of a branch, con- 
cealed from beneath by the cup formed by the uprising of 
the terminal fronds. Our informant says that they breed 
at two different times of the year, — first in April and May, 
and again in June and July, he having taken the young in 
August ; he also says the earlier breeders are smaller and 
more lively and cheerful than the later ones. Mr. T. Mac- 
kenzie reared a young one taken on the 21st May 1875, 
and it proved an interesting pet. Mr. E. K. Alston observed 
