316 DEGLUBITORES. HUSKERS. 



selves. The purpose of this habit has been supposed to be to 

 rid themselves of parasitic insects ; but it is more probably 

 connected with the gratification imparted by the warmth com- 

 municated by the heated sand. They wash occasionally in 

 pools and streams, standing or crouching in the water, and 

 throwing it up by repeated flutterings. They drink by im- 

 mersing their bill and taking up a little at a time, elevating 

 their head in swallowing it. They construct an elaborate nest, 

 greatly diversified in form and texture, according to the species. 

 The eggs, which vary from four or five to eight or nine, exhibit 

 great diversity of marking, being however generally spotted or 

 dotted. The young are born blind, at first thinly covered with 

 down. The males are almost always more gayly attired than 

 the females ; the young are generally similar to the latter ; and 

 the young males sometimes moult several times before the 

 plumage is completed. 



The digestive organs of these birds are obviously adapted for 

 seeds or other hard bodies. The strong, conical, pointed bill, 

 with its fine point and sharp edges, performs the part of a for- 

 ceps and husking instrument ; the dilatation of the oesophagus 

 receives the food collected ; the gizzard, as muscular as that of 

 the Rasores, with an equally tough and rugous internal coat, 

 readily triturates the frequently hard seeds with the aid of 

 gravel or sand ; and the iiigesta being highly nutritious do not 

 require to undergo a protracted elaboration in the intestine, so 

 that the cceca are merely mucous crjq^ts, as in the Pigeons, 

 whose food is pretty similar. 



The British species are all more or less gregarious in winter. 

 In summer they are dispersed over the country, some residing 

 in woods, others in thickets, some in the open fields, while one 

 species, the Common Sparrow, prefers, like the Jackdaw of the 

 next order, lodging about the habitations of man. It is in 

 this order that some of our finest songsters, the Brown Linnet, 

 Greenfinch, and Goldfinch, are found ; but many of them have 

 not the faculty of emitting " sweet sounds.'"* Being entirely 

 granivorous for the greater part of the }'ear, some species, as the 

 Sparrow and Bunting, commit considerable depredations on the 

 crops, and in winter pick the seeds from the corn-stacks. They 



