56 
ARKANSAW SISKIN. 
Siskin are confined to the three outer feathers, whilst in the foreign 
bird all the feathers, excepting the two middle ones, are marked 
with yellow; the bill of our species is also a little shorter, less 
compressed, and less acuminated; finally, we may notice another 
trifling difference, which consists in the proportional length of the 
primaries, the four first being nearly equal in the American bird, 
and the three first only in the European, the fourth being almost 
a quarter of an inch shorter. The other approximate species, 
Fringilla magellanica , Vieill. considered by Gmelin and Latham 
as a variety of the European Siskin, is readily distinguishable by 
having the head entirely black. 
Though the Mexican Siskin ( Fringilla mexicana , Gmel.) may 
prove to be the female of our bird, or the male in an imperfect 
state of plumage, (and, from the locality, we should possibly have 
referred it to that name, had the classification of it fallen to our 
lot,) yet, as nothing positive can be drawn from so unessential an 
indication as that of the Mexican Siskin, we have no hesitation in 
following the same course with Say, who considers it as entirely 
new, and have retained his elegant name of Fringilla psaltria. 
It is very possible that not only the Fringilla mexicana, but also 
the Black Mexican Siskin, (. Fringilla catotol, Gmel.) may be the 
same bird as our Fringilla psaltria; but how can we determine, 
from the vague descriptions that have been given of those species? 
they are equally applicable to the American Goldfinch in its dull 
state of plumage; and Wilson expresses a doubt whether or not 
the Black Mexican Siskin is the same as his new species, Frin¬ 
gilla pinus. 
All these pretty little birds belong to the sub-genus Carduelis, 
having a more slender, acute, and elongated bill, than other Frin- 
