56 BRITISH BIRDS. 
Genus COCCOTHRAUSTES. 
The Grosbeaks were included by Linnzeus in his genus Lowia, and are 
closely allied to theCrossbills. Brisson established the genus Coccothraustes 
for their reception in 1760 in his ‘ Ornithologia,’ iii. p. 218, making the 
Common Hawfinch, his Coccothraustes coccothraustes, the type. 
The Hawfinches may be distinguished by their very large bills, which 
are nearly as long as the tarsus, and are so thick that the ridge of the 
upper mandible forms almost a continuous curve with the contour of the 
head. The wings and tail are black, in some species glossy black, but 
there are generally white patches on many of the feathers of one or the 
other. None of the species have white rumps. 
The geographical distribution of this genus is almost precisely the same 
as that of the Crossbills, the Rose-Finches, and the Bullfinches, to which 
they are so closely allied as to be scarcely generically separable. They 
inhabit the Palearctic and Nearctic Regions south of the Arctic circle, 
beyond the former extending as far south as the southern slopes of the 
Himalayas, and in the latter having a still more southern range, breeding 
not only in Mexico but also in the mountains of Guatemala. The 
number of species in the genus probably does not exceed a dozen. Only 
one species occurs in Europe, which is a resident in the British Islands. 
Most of the Grosbeaks are inhabitants of pine-forests ; but the European 
species is most partial to beech- and oak-woods. Except during the 
breeding-season they are gregarious in their habits. They are almost 
omnivorous in their diet, feeding alike on seeds, fruit, and insects. None 
of them have any great powers of song. They breed in trees at various 
heights from the ground, and their nests are formed on a similar model to 
that of the Bullfinch. Very little concerning the eggs of the Grosbeaks 
is known, beyond those of the European species; but they probably do 
not differ in character from them. 
