1861‘A Lady’Life at Cape (1963) 28There is a yellow and brown finch, called the saasie which runs up and down a limited scale with much sweetness and expression, but the singing is soft and subdued, and, as it were, lisped out.
1923Haagner & IvySketches of S. Afr. Bird-Life 146A vastly different bird is the sombre-plumaged White-throated Seedeater (S. albigularis) called ‘Dik-bek Seisje’ or ‘Berg-seisje’ by the Colonial boys. It is of an ashy-brown colour streaked on the back with darker brown.
1908Haagner & IvySketches of S. Afr. Bird-Life 84The Large Yellow Seedeater (Serinus sulphuratus), the ‘Geel-seisje’ and ‘Bully’ of the Colonial boys, and its smaller congeners, the Kleine seisjes (S. flaviventris and S. marshalli) make handsome cage birds in their greenish-yellow and bright golden yellow colours.
1958I. VaughanDiary 52We put them in a big cage in the garden where they all sing. They are cape canareys, blackheads and geel sysies.
1900Stark & SclaterBirds of S. Afr.I. 171Although not such a favourite cage-bird as the ‘Cape Canarie’, the ‘Kleine Seisje’ is by no means a despicable songster.
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