266 
FRINGILLIDiE. 
The next winter, in which siskins were met with over a great 
part of the island, was that of 1847-8, when they were observed in 
the county of Wexford for the first time. They were seen there on 
the 26th of November and subsequently.'* About Cork they ap- 
peared in considerable numbers;! as they did also at Ranelagh, near 
Dublin, where they were first noticed in December, and remained 
until the first or second week of April. J In these three localities 
they were associated with the lesser redpole; and in the two latter, 
were feeding on the seed of the alder. On the 11th of February, the 
Rev. George Robinson informed me that siskins had been com- 
mon for the previous month in the county of Armagh generally, in- 
cluding the neighbourhood of his residence, near Tandragee; 
they came almost daily under his notice, unassociated with any 
other species, and about fifty were sometimes in a flock. They fed 
almost wholly on the alder, and looked beautiful, hanging like 
little parrots, picking at the drooping seeds of that tree : — some 
were killed feeding on thistles. They admitted of a close approach, 
and during a recent snow-storm were killed with stones by boys. 
On the 9th of March, they were last observed about Tandragee. 
In the vicinity of Belfast, I first heard of them on Christmas day, 
from which period until the end of February, they were observed 
in various parts of the counties of Antrim and Down. On the 
trees bordering the bay about Mertoun, it was said that about a 
hundred would appear in a flock ; even some hundreds are stated 
to have been seen together, on the wooded banks of Lough Neagh, 
at Rockland. Some were described as hanging like titmice, feeding 
on the seeds of the birch : and elegant this graceful tree must 
have appeared at such a time. 
An observant friend, residing in Ayrshire, saw several siskins 
near Ballantrae, a few days before Christmas, 1839, — a season in 
which they are not known to have visited Ireland, — and since 
that period, they have often been common in winter, about the 
* Mr. Poole. 
f Dr. Harvey, who remarks that they visit a place about five miles from Cork, in 
the winter, pretty regularly. 
+ Report, Dublin Nat. Hist. Society, June 9th, 1848 ; where also the species is 
said to have been obtained near the metropolis in “the winter of 1846.” 
