chrysomitris

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An Aristotelian name of some small yellowish bird that feeds upon thistles, perhaps the goldfinch, taken by Boie in 1828 as the name of a genus of fringilline birds, including the linnet or siskin (C. spinus), and later extended to a number of American linnets, as the pine-finch (C. pinus), the American goldfinch (C. tristis), etc., having an acutely conic bill, pointed wings, and short forked tail. See cut under goldfinch.