250 FIG-EATER— FINCH 



been noticed by British poets with varying propriety. Thus 

 Chaucer's association of its name with frost is as happy as true, 

 while Scott was more than unlucky in his well-known reference to 

 its " lowly nest " in the Highlands. 



Structurally very like the Fieldfare, but differing greatly in 

 many other respects, is the bird known in North America as the 

 " Robin " — its ruddy breast and familiar habits reminding the 

 early Bi-itish settlers in the New World of the household favourite 

 of their former homes. This bird, the Twrdns migratorius of 

 Linnaeus, has a ^nde geographical range, extending from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Greenland to Guatemala, and, 

 except at its extreme limits, is almost everywhere a very abundant 

 species.^ As its scientific name imports, it is essentially a migrant, 

 and gathers in flocks to pass the winter in the south, though a few 

 remain in New England throughout the year. Yet its social 

 instincts point rather in the direction of man than of its own kind, 

 and it is not known to breed in companies, while it affects the 

 homesteads, villages, and even the pai'ks and gardens of the large 

 cities, where its fine song, its attractive plumage, and its services as 

 a destroyer of noxious insects, combine to make it justly popular. 



FIG-EATER, Ray's rendering in 1678 of the Italian Beccafico, 

 a name commonly and almost indiscriminately given to any of the 

 little birds which towards autumn resort to gardens, whether to eat 

 figs or not, and are themselves caught by various devices, to be 

 eaten as delicacies. According to the best recent authorities the 

 true Beccafico is our Garden-WARBLER, Sylvia salicaria or hortensis ; 

 but the bird which Buffon calls by the corresponding French term, 

 Bec-figue, is the female Pied Flycatcher, Miiscicapa or Ficedula 

 atricapiUa — one that may be safely said never to eat a fig. 



FINCH (German Fink, Latin Fringilla), a name applied (but 

 almost always in composition — as Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Gold- 

 finch, Hawfinch, and so forth) to a great many small birds of 

 the Order Fasseres, and now pretty generally accepted as that of a 

 group or Family — the Fringillidx of most ornithologists. Yet it is 

 one the extent of which must be regarded as being uncertain. 

 Many -writers have included in it the BUNTINGS (Emherizidx), 

 though these seem to be quite distinct, and the gi'ounds of their 

 separation have been before assigned, as well as the Larks 

 {Alaudidse), the Tanagers (Tanagridx), and the Weaver-birds 

 (Ploceidse) — the mode in which these last three differ having in due 

 time to be shewn in these pages. Others have separated from it 

 the Crossbills, under the title of Loxiidx, but without due cause, 



^ It is recorded as having occurred a few times in Europe, and once even in 

 England {Zool. 1877, p. 14) ; but whether in any case it has been a voluntary 

 visitor is doubtful. 



