FRINGILLID®. OL) 
“The eggs are white, sometimes tinged with 
blue or green; they are spotted, chiefly about the 
larger end, with violet and deep claret-red or 
brown.” * 
This is the last of the Somersetshire Finches: 
there are, as I before observed, several more species 
included, on more or less good authority, as British, 
but I have not been able at present to find any 
authority for mentioning them in this list. Asa 
whole the family is a most interesting one, and per- 
haps, both on account of the great numbers of some 
of the species and the variety of food which they all 
consume, the Finches are of more importance to the 
gardener and the agriculturist than any other family, 
the Corvide not even excepted; and for this reason 
I hope the attention of my readers and of ornitho- 
logists generally will be more particularly directed 
to the subject of food, and that we may be able to 
settle the much-vexed question, whether they are to 
any great degree our enemies or friends, or (which 
is more probable) a mixture of both: as far as I 
have been able to form an opinion, I certainly 
believe them to be our friends, the good they do 
predominating over the evil, and that, generally, most 
in those species which are most numerous. 
* Meyer's ‘ British Birds,’ vol. iii., p. 141. 
