Fringilla spinus Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 181.
Chrysomitris spinus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1888), 12,
212; McGregor, Bull. Philippine Mus. (1904), 4, 24.
Spinus spinus McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 104.
Calayan (McGregor). British Islands, Europe, northern Asia,
and Siberia; in winter to Japan, southern China, and the Liu
Kiu Islands.
Male.--General color lemon-yellow; crown and nape black; back
and scapulars yellowish green with dark shaft-lines; rump yellow;
tail-coverts olive-green; chin and middle of fore throat black;
a band from above center of eye to neck lemon-yellow; ear-coverts
washed with olive; cheeks, sides of neck and of throat, and remaining
under parts bright lemon-yellow, becoming white on middle of abdomen;
flanks streaked with black; feathers of thighs drab-gray tipped
with white; under tail-coverts yellow with broad dusky shaft-marks
and white tips; wing-feathers blackish brown; primaries, except the
first, narrowly edged with yellow and, except the outer three, with
a spot of yellow on outer web near the tips of the coverts, forming
a bar, which is continued on the outer webs of the secondaries, each
of the latter has also a large yellow spot near the tip; tertials
edged with yellow, and median coverts tipped with yellowish olive;
greater coverts black with olive-yellow tips; rectrices, except the
middle pair, bright yellow with wide blackish brown tips, fringed
with gray. A male from Calayan Island measures: Length, 114; wing,
70; tail, 43; culmen from base, 12; tarsus, 15.
Female.--Somewhat similar to the male, but the yellow much paler and
more restricted; black cap and chin-spot wanting; under parts nearly
all white and more heavily streaked with blackish; above olive-green
with a hoary cast; head and neck spotted, and back streaked, with
blackish; yellow line above and behind eye mottled with olive-green;
under parts white or pale gray heavily streaked with blackish brown
on sides, flanks, breast, and sides of abdomen; middle of breast and
abdomen white; sides of head and of neck with obscure dusky streaks
and a yellow wash. A female measures: Wing, 70; tail, 42; culmen from
base, 11; tarsus, 13.
"Young birds resemble the old female, but are browner, with less
yellow, so that the rump, eyebrow, and sides of face are whitish;
the upper surface of the body is thickly mottled with blackish
mesial streaks on all the feathers, and the under surface is white
thickly spotted with blackish brown, the spots being triangular on
the throat and breast, and longitudinal on the sides of the body and
flanks." (Sharpe.)
The siskin as a Philippine species is known only from four specimens
taken in Calayan in the month of November, 1903.
Genus EMBERIZA Linnæus, 1758.
Bill small and conical, its outlines nearly straight; cutting edge
of upper mandible with a decided angle near its base; wing covering
not more than one-half the tail; tips of rectrices more rounded and
the tail less forked than in either Fringilla or Spinus. Plumage more
or less streaked with black; outermost rectrices nearly all white,
but with an oblique blackish mark near base of inner web and a small
dusky mark near tip; next pair black with a long white mark near shaft.
Species.
a1. Chin and throat chestnut; no yellow on under parts; lores, sides
of face, ear-coverts, and throat vinous-chestnut; remaining under
parts white; breast and sides streaked with black ... pusilla (p. 683)
a2. Chin and throat not chestnut; under parts more or less yellow.
b1. Throat dull ashy gray; lores and chin blackish
(male). ... spodocephala (p. 684)
b2. Throat and breast yellow.
c1. Sides of body and flanks reddish brown, streaked with black
(female). ... spodocephala (p. 684)
c2. Sides of body and flanks yellow, streaked with black
... sulphurata (p. 685)