13 
Perching Birds. 
is very similar to that of the Brambling. In winter it goes south from its breeding 
places, and is then found, in small parties, frequenting the alders, and often 
consorting with Redpolls and Goldfinches. Sometimes flocks of Siskins, consisting 
of twenty or thirty individuals, may be noticed on the alders, all busily engaged in 
obtaining the seeds, and hanging on to the twigs in every conceivable position. So 
intent are the birds on their task that a note is seldom uttered, and I have many times 
waited for several minutes under an alder into which I had seen a flock of Siskins 
pass, before I could discover the little birds, which are generally seen feeding close 
together at the end of the slender twigs. The nest of the Siskin resembles that of 
the Goldfinch in size and in material, and the eggs are very similar to those of the 
latter bird ; it is generally placed at a good height in a fir-tree, and is difficult to find. 
The Goldfinch ( Carduelis cardnelis). This bird, like its relation the Siskin, 
has a more pointed bill than the Chaffinch and the Brambling, and is of much 
more slender build than those birds : otherwise, however, it is very difficult to 
distinguish the different characteristics of these Finches, which are very similar 
in structure to each other, and are told more by their style of coloration than by any 
other well-marked character. It is, in fact, very interesting to notice how a certain 
pattern of colour runs through a genus of Finches. Thus the Siskins are nearly all 
greenish birds with black heads and throats and yellow bands on the wings, so 
that this coloration is characteristic not only of our European species, but 
of the majority of the species of Siskins which are spread over the New 
World. So, with the Goldfinches, the only species known are recognisable 
at a glance by their crimson face and the patch of gold on their wings. In 
form and in habits the Goldfinch is most like the Siskin, and the call-note 
of both these species, and also that of the Redpolls, is much the same, and 
sounds like the word eaglet. The food of the Goldfinch consists of the seeds 
of the alder trees and those of plants, and 
it is very fond of thistle-seeds. The nest is 
a pretty little structure, smaller than that of 
the Chaffinch, but built on the same plan of 
concealment by means of the lichens and cob- 
webs with which it is covered. It is built in 
an evergreen bush, or in a fruit tree, and is 
often placed at the very end of an outlying 
branch of an oak or birch-tree, when it is often 
quite inaccessible. The eggs are like small 
editions of those of a Greenfinch or Linnet. 
The Twite (Cannabina Jlavirostris). Just as the Goldfinches and the Siskins have 
a characteristic style of colouring, so have the Linnet group of Finches, viz. — a red 
rump and a red cap and breast — generally the three combined. The principal 
exception to this rule is the Twite or Mountain-Linnet, which has no red on the 
