PASSERES. FR1NG1LL1DAI.
Ca r d u e l is s p in u s (Linnaeus*).
THE SISKIN.
Carduelis spinus.
T h e S is k in , or Aberdevine as birdcatchers also call it, is
for the most part an autumnal visitant from the north to
England, and generally departs in spring, but it is known
to have bred with us, and this, according to authorities
presently to be cited, even in our southern counties. In
Scotland however there is now no doubt that many pairs remain
and breed annually, and the same may perhaps prove
to be true of the north of England. It is generally found in
flocks, often in company with the Redpoll, to be hereafter
described, and not uncommonly in large numbers, feeding
on the seeds of the alder, birch and larch, which the bird’s
pointed bill is an efficient instrument for extracting. Under
these circumstances it frequently attracts attention by its
very peculiar twittering note, serving as with the various
* Fringilla spinus, Linnteus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 322 (1766).
species of Titmouse to keep the flock together while its
members industriously search every cone or catkin, clinging,
hack downwards or in any other convenient position, to
the most slender sprays in their quest. These migrant
bands commonly appear towards the end of September
and stay with us till April—their abode during that time
being almost entirely ruled by the supply of food, and
what may he a favourite haunt in one year will not be
visited by a single example in another, so that the appearance
of the species is, in many places, very uncertain. As
spring draws on, the remarkable song of the cocks, which
sounds not unlike the running down of a piece of clockwork,
may be heard on fine days, as they momentarily pause
from their almost incessant occupation of finding food, or
chase one another with more or less anger from twig to twig.
Among these flocks however the same disproportion of the
sexes often observed in other assemblages of Finches is said
to obtain, and occasionally, according to one observer, the
hens are fifty times as numerous as the cocks.
Although this bird has been known to breed, as just
stated, in England, the several instances of its doing so, or
of its being observed with us in summer deserve particular
notice. In 1852 a nest, built in a furze-bush near Affpiddle
in Dorsetshire, was given by Mr. Charles Waldy, who declared
he saw the bird on it, to Mr. 0. Pickard-Cambridge, and
that gentleman believes a nest, found soon after in a similar
position at Bloxworth in the same county, to have been a
Siskin’s. Mr. Jeffery reports (Zool. s.s. p. 1038) that a
pair built a nest and reared young in a garden at Oving
near Chichester in 1867. Latham, in a note to the edition
of Pennant’s ‘ British Zoology ’ published in 1812, states
that he received from Lewin a male and female shot in
summer in the latter’s garden in Kent. The late Mr. H.
L. Meyer informed the Author that in 1836 two Siskins
nests, built in furze about three feet from the ground, were
found in Coombe Wood in Surrey. From these the eggs
were taken and hatched under Canary-birds, and as one of
the nestlings was kept by Meyer for at least two years, there