FRINGILLIDA, — CLXVII. 281 
feathers. Tarsus scutellate in front, with an undivided ridge 
behind. 
A very large family, the most extensive in Ornithology, com- 
prising about 100 genera and 500 species, found in nearly every 
part of the world, except Australia. They are especially abundant 
in North America, where about one seventh of all the birds are 
Fringillide. “ Any one United States locality of average attract- 
iveness to birds, has a bird-fauna of over two hundred species, and 
if it be away from the sea-coast, and consequently uninhabited by 
marine birds, about one-fourth of the species are Mniotiltide and 
Fringillide together, the latter somewhat in excess of the former. 
It is not easy, therefore, to give undue prominence to these two 
families.” (Coues.) 
All the Finches are granivorous, feeding chiefly on seeds, but not 
rejecting either berries or insects; nearly all sing, and some most 
delightfully ; most of them are plainly clad, a streaky brown being 
the prevailing tint, but others are among the most brilliantly col- 
ored birds. Among these latter only are the changes in plumage 
strongly marked. (Lat., fringilla, finch.) 
A strictly natural analysis of the genera of Fringillide is prac- 
tically impossible, as they do not fall naturally into definable groups. 
The characters drawn from the development of the palate are not 
available for the ordinary purposes of the student. The following 
semi-artificial key is largely adapted from Ridgway’s Manual. 
a. Mandibles falcate, crossed at tip; nostrils concealed by a small ruff. 
Loxta, 474. 
aa. Mandibles not crossed at tip. 
6. Head with a conspicuous crest; bill very large; culmen strongly curved 
(bill, wings, and tail chiefly red). . . . . . . CARDINALIS, 491. 
bb. Head without crest. 
c. Bill very stout, its depth at base equal to length of hind toe with claw, 
and more than ? tarsus; nostrils partly concealed. 
COCCOTHRAUSTES, 471. 
cc. Bill less stout, its depth at base less than length of hind toe with 
claw. 
e. Nasal plumules long, wa? the basal third of upper mandible; 
bill stout. ae a - a (railet trate ERICOR As. Aree 
ee. Nasal sinmeules if prleae oops much less than one- third of 
length of upper mandible. 
ae Introduced birds; gonys distinctly convex in profile; (plumage 
streaked above, not below; no white, red, yellow, or blue). 
PASSER, 473, note. 
Jf. Native birds; gonys straight or nearly so. 
g. Primaries much longer than secondaries (exceeding them by 
length of tarsus). 
h. Wing at least 5 times as long as the short tarsus. 
i. Birds of moderate size, the wing more than 33 inches. 
j. Base of gonys nearer base of bill than its tip (measuring 
