THE SISKINS. 
4» 
in their style of coloration, which consists chiefly of green and 
yellow, the crown of the head being in most cases black. 
The Siskins are found all over South and North America, 
throughout Europe and Northern Asia, to the Himalayas, and 
they occur also in North-eastern Africa, the highlands of 
Equatorial Africa, and reappear in the Cape Colony. 
THE SISKIN. CHRYSOMITRIS SPINUS. 
Fringilla spinus, Linn., S. N., i., p. 322 (1766); Lilford, Col. 
Fig. Br. B., pt. xiv. (1890). 
Carduelis spinus, Macg., Br. B., i., p. 400 (1837) ; Newt. ed. 
Yarr., ii., p. 126 (1877). 
Chrysomitris spinus. Dresser, B. Eur., iii., p. 541, pi. 169 
(1876); B. O. U. List Br. B., 48 (1883); Sharpe, Cat. B. 
Br. Mus., xii., p. 212 (1888); Saunders, Man., p. 167 
(1889). 
Adult Male. — Head black ; throat black ; back yellowish 
green, with dusky shaft-streaks on the feathers of the upper 
surface ; rump brighter yellow ; flanks yellowish, streaked with 
black ; tail-feathers yellow at base ; bill dusky, livid at base ; 
feet light brown ; iris brown. Total length, 4^5 inches ; culmen, 
°'45 1 wing, 27; tail, 17; tarsus, 0-55. 
Adult Female. — Differs from the male in wanting the black 
head ; under surface white, tinged with yellow on the throat ; 
sides of body and flanks streaked with black centres to the 
feathers. 
Range in Groat Britain. — Breeding in Scotland and in certain 
parts of Ireland (co. Waterford and Wicklow). Generally 
known as a winter visitor to England, though it is said to have 
nested in most of the English counties. 
Range outside the British Islands. — Breeds throughout the pine 
districts of Europe, in Scandinavia to lat. 67" in Russia 
to the vicinity of Archangel, and in the Urals to lat. 58°. 
Extends throughout Siberia to Japan. Winters to the south- 
ward. 
Nest — A pretty structure, cup-shaped, made of moss with a 
few feathers and lined with horse-hair. Mr. Seebohm says 
that there is generally a foundation of grass-stalks with a few 
