i8 
British Birds. 
The Serin Finch. 
feature in our country districts. It 
is a curious fact in distribution 
that whereas in Western Europe the 
House - Sparrow is the bird of the 
cities and villages, and the Tree- 
Sparrow is the species of the country, 
as the eastern range of the two 
birds is reached, it is the Tree- 
Sparrow which becomes the dominant 
one and replaces the House-Sparrow as 
the familiar species of the towns and 
gardens. The nest is a rough structure of straw, like that of other Sparrows, and 
is situated in holes of barns or rocks, but it is more frequently placed in pollard 
willows. The eggs are more thickly marked than those of the House- Sparrow, 
which they otherwise closely resemble. 
that the Serin is decidedly the smaller of the two. It is an inhabitant of Southern 
and Central Europe, and is apparently extending its range northward, as 
frequent notices of its breeding in localities hitherto unrecorded appear in the 
German periodicals. It extends as far north as Denmark, and occasionally 
wanders to the British Islands, some eight individuals having been 
captured in England during the season of spring or autumn migration. 
The song of the Serin Finch or ‘ Zeizig,’ as it is called in Germany, 
is quite unmistakable, as I can state from my own observations in 
the Frankfort Zoological Gardens, where I was first introduced to the 
bird, by the well-known naturalist, Ernst Hartert. The habits of the Serin 
are those of the Siskin, excepting that the former is a more lively bird, 
and is much more often seen, as it sings from the top of a tree or 
mounts into the air. The eggs resemble those of the Linnet, but are 
smaller. 
Many Wild Canaries ( Serinus canaria ) have be'en caught in England, 
and I have had several brought to me at the British Museum; but 
whether they are really individuals which have been brought alive from 
the Canary Islands and have escaped, or whether they are ordinary 
yellow Canaries which have got out of their cages and taken to the 
woods and flourished, it is impossible to say. Those brought to me 
have shewn no signs of captivity, but a few seasons of freedom would 
probably result in the reversion of the yellow bird of our aviaries to the 
plumage of the ancestral stock — -the Wild Canary. 
THE SERIN FINCH. 
( Serinus serinus.) 
Is a Canary, and is so like the wild Canary of Madeira, 
from which the ordinary yellow cage-bird is derived, that 
there is practically no difference between the two birds, except 
