319 



PASSERIN.E. 



SPAEJROWS AND ALLIED SPECIES. 



Thi. family of Passerinse is composed of small birds whose 

 average size is that of the common House Sj^arrow, a species 

 which may be considered as the most extensiv^ely distributed and 

 the most familiarly known of its tribe. The genera of which it 

 is composed have so strong a mutual resemblance that it is very 

 questionable wdiether the greater number of them ought not to 

 be referred to the same subordinate group. These genera are 

 Fringilla, Passer, Linaria, Carduelis, Coccothraustes, P}Trhula, 

 and Crucirostra, of all which there are representatives in Bri- 

 tain. These birds agree in presenting the following characters. 

 Their body is ovate, compact, and stout ; their neck short ; 

 their head large ; their wings and tail of moderate length. 



The bill, PL VIII, Fig. 8, is short, stout, conical, its sides 

 convex ; the upper mandible of about the same breadth as the 

 lower, its dorsal outline nearly straight, but generally more or 

 less arched, its tip sharp and slightly deflected, the edo-es a 

 little inflected, sharp, and with a slight sinus near the tip ; the 

 gape-line nearly straight ; the lower mandible with the angle 

 short, broad, and rounded, the dorsal outline straight, or slightly 

 convex, the edges sharp, and inflected, the tip acute. Both 

 mandibles are internally concave, the upper with a medial pro- 

 minent line, and generally two lateral ones. The tongue is 

 sagittate, subulato-lanceolate, involute, the tip horny, bifid or 

 terminated by a pencil of short bristles. The posterior aper- 

 ture of the nares is linear, and defended by acute papillse. 

 The pharynx of moderate width. The oesophagus, PL VIII, 

 Fig. 1, a,h, c, d, generally dilatable on the middle of the neck 

 into a crop, b, lying on the left side, is afterwards narrow ; the 

 proventriculus, d^ bulbiform, and studded with oblong or cylin- 



