BREEDING.--The siskin rarely builds its nest among the alders, but generally in the pine forests, placing it at the extremity of the highest branches, and fixing it there with cobwebs, the threads of insects and lichens. The outer part is well formed of small twigs, and the lining is formed of finely divided roots. It has two broods in the year, each of five or six eggs, of a light grey, strongly spotted with purplish brown, particularly at the large end. The young males become finer each year till the fourth. The mules, produced by the siskin pairing with the canary, partake of the two species, and are very prettily spotted if the canary is yellow; but this union is not so easy as that with the green canary, which appears to bear a nearer relation to the siskin. DISEASES.--To the other maladies common to the birds of this family we must add epilepsy, of which these birds often die[50]. They may, however, be kept from eight to twelve years. MODE OF TAKING.--With good traps and nets made for this purpose, several dozen of these birds may be taken at once in the winter. They also collect in numbers, in the spring, on the decoy bush, and they are so fearless, that in the villages a person, who has his house situated near a stream bordered with alders, need only place a siskin in the window, near a stick covered with bird-lime, and he may catch as many as he wishes. I have caught some at my window in a cage strewed with hemp and poppy-seed, by letting the door fall by means of a string, when the birds had entered, one of the decoy birds in my room serving to attract them. When the place where they drink at noon is discovered amongst the alders, numbers may be caught by merely laying across the stream some branches covered with bird-lime.