546 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



prising more than five hundred, scattered all over the globe, with the sole exception of 

 the Australian region, a peculiar distribution, which, according to Wallace, is " hardly 

 to be found in any other family of birds." It is a rather polymorphic group, with an 

 enormous variation in the shape of the conical beak, from the weak and sinuated bills 

 of the snow-flake (Plectrophenax) and its allies, to the enormously powerful grain- 

 crushing mandibles of the grosbeaks, and the odd instrument of the cross-bills (Loxia) 



FIG. 273. Petronia, petronia, rock-sparrow (upper right-hand figure); Passer hispaniolensis, Spanish sparrow 

 (upper left) ; P. montanus, tree-sparrow (middle) ; P. domesticus, English sparrow (lower). 



for opening and extracting the seeds of pines and firs from the cones. Also in colora- 

 tion there is a great diversity, though most of the forms are modestly or even plainly 

 dressed in brown and gray, varied with yellow, and spotted and streaked with dusky ; 

 though brilliantly colored species are not missing, as, for instance, our cardinal gros- 

 beaks (Cardinalis), the nonpareil and some of its allies (Passerina), the Himalayan 

 scarlet (Hcematospiza sipahi), the different Old World bulfinches, etc. 



Sundevall has attempted to divide this vast multitude in two ' phalanges,' those 



