2 FRIXGILLID^. 



Bunting with the aspect of a Grosbeak ; while UrocyncTiramus is 

 certainby a Bunting with the aspect of a Rose-Finch, or, if it be pre- 

 ferred, a Rose-Finch with the bill of a Bunting. 



Every division of the family is therefore to be accepted on the 

 score of convenience rather than as having a foundation of solid 

 structural characters ; and it would not be unreasonable to treat the 

 whole family as constituting one great genus FringiUa, with various 

 sections or subgenera, as was once done for the family Picidce by the 

 late Professor Sundevall. 



It is quite possible that when all the genera have been osteolo- 

 gically and anatomically examined, additional generic characters 

 may be discovered ; but even then little confidence can be felt in the 

 classification of the family, unless every single type of Finch has 

 been examined ; for, so far as my experience goes, every Fringilline 

 form at present known is close!}' connected with some other form, 

 which in turn leads on through a perfectly complete gradation to 

 the most distant genus of the family. The series of skeletons in 

 the Museum is not sufficient for a comparison of the osteology of 

 all the genera of Finches ; and therefore it has been impossible for 

 me to attempt a classification from these characters alone. Never- 

 theless one can recognize three apparently well-defined types, which, 

 for convenience' sake, I shall regard as subfamilies, but with a caution 

 to the student that, however different a Hawfinch, a Chaffinch, and a 

 Bunting may look at first sight as centres of large groups of Finches, 

 there is no difficulty in discovering the links which join them all 

 together in one series. 



The following are the characters which, though slight, appear to 

 me to be fairly typical of the main divisions alluded to above : — 



a. Nasal bones (see fig.) produced backwards beyond the anterior line 

 of the orbit; mandible verv powerful and deep posteriorlv : angle 

 of genys very slight . . Subfam. VOCCOTHR AUSTINJZ, p. 3. 



a. Skull of Cocco/hraustes coccothraustes, from above. 



b. Skull of Coccothraustes corcothraasfes, lateral view. 



