ORDER OF PERCHING BIRDS Concluded 



Order Pas 



FINCHES 



suborder Osci}ics ; family Frijigillidcr 



^HE Finches are the largest family of birds; there are about twelve hundred 

 species and subspecies scattered over the world except in Australia; about 

 two hundred are represented in the United States. They belong to the 

 larger division of singing birds. All have cone-shaped bills, nine feathers 

 in the hand section of the wing, and a sharp angle at the back of each foot. 

 The line of opening of the bill turns downward near the base, and in some 

 of the Finches the cutting edge of the lower bill is distinctly elevated about 

 the center, this raised portion forming a tooth. At the corners of the mouth 

 are bristles, sometimes indistinct liut usually quite easily seen. There are 

 always twelve feathers in the tail, l;)ut the shape varies. The nostrils are 

 high up, bare in some species and in others covered with bristles. 

 The plumage varies from almost plain to highly variegated. The coloring of the 

 Sparrows is adapted to their grassy, dusty habitats and the males and females are similar;, 

 while in the subdivision of Finches the males are chiefly bright-colored and the females 

 either duller or with a distinct plumage. Nests are generally placed on the ground or in 

 bushes or in low trees. 



These birds are essentially seed-eaters, their strong bills being jjeculiarly adapted to 

 this kind of food. They do, of course, eat insects also. Because of this indifiference to 

 animal food the Finches are less migratory than most birds. 



Year by year the usefulness of this family is more and more appreciated by humans. 

 They lay the farmer under a heavy debt of gratitude by their food habits, since their chosen 

 fare consists largely of the seeds of weeds. Some idea of the money value of this group 

 of birds to the country may be gained from the statement that the total value of the farm 

 products in the United States in iqio reached the sum of $8, g26, 000,000 If we estimate 

 that the total consumption of weed seed by the combined members of this family resulted 

 in a saving of only one per cent of the crops — not a violent assumption — the sum saved 

 to farmers by these birds in igio was $89,260,000. 



Their work begins before the seeds are ripe and continues throughout fall and winter 

 and even far into spring. The Sparrows that breed on the farm have to content them- 

 selves early in the spring with seeds left from the preceding year. During August the seed- 

 eating of Sparrows is sufficiently noticeable to attract the attention of even a casual observer; 

 for by this time great stores of weed seed have ripened and the young Sparrows, which have 

 lieen exclusively insectivorous, are ready to take vegetable food. From autumn to spring 

 evidence of the seed-eating habits of Sparrows is so plain that he who runs may read ; the lively 

 flocks diving here and there among the brown weeds to feed are familiar adjuncts of every 

 roadside, fence row, and field. A person visiting one of the weed patches in the agricultural 

 region of the upper Mississipjji valley on a sunny morning in January, when the thermometer 

 is 20 or more below zero, will be struck by the life and animation of the busy little inhabitants. 

 Instead of sitting forlorn and half frozen, they may be seen flitting from branch to branch, 

 twittering and fluttering, and showing every evidence of enjoyment and perfect comfort. 

 If one of them is shot, it will be found in excellent condition — in fact, a veritable ball of fat. 

 The most serious charge that can be brought against members of the Finch family 

 is that they distribute noxious plants, the seeds of which pass through their stomachs and 

 germinate when voided from the body. However, it seems likely that this agency of seed- 

 ing down farms to weeds is infinitesimal when compared with the dispersion of weeds caused 



[I] 



