546 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



prising more than five Lundrecl, scattered all over the gloW, with the sole exception of 

 the Australian region, a peculiar distribution, which, according to Wallace, is " hardly 

 to be found in any other family of birds." It is a rather judyinorpliic group, with an 

 enormous variation in the shape of the conical beak, from the weak and sinuated bills 

 of the snow-flake {Plectrophcnax) and its allies, to the enormously powerful grain- 

 crushing mandibles of the grosbeaks, and the odd instrument of the cross-bills (Zoxia) 





Fia. 273. — Petronia petTonia, rock-sparroT (upper rielit-hand figure); Passer hispaniolmsis, Spanish sparrow 

 (upper lett) ; P. monlanus, trceniparrow (miildle); P. Jomeslicus, English sparrow (lower). 



for opening and extracting the seeds of pines and fire from the cones. Also in colora- 

 tion there is a great diversity, though most of the forms are modestly or even plainly 

 dressed in brown and gray, varied with yellow, and spotted an<l streaked with dusky; 

 though bi'illiantly colored species are not missing, as, for instance, our cardinal gros- 

 beaks (Cardiiialis), the nonpareil and some of its allies (Passerina), the Himalayan 

 scarlet {Ilrcmatospizn .tipnhi), the different Old World bulfinehes, etc. 



Sundevall has attempted to divide this vast multitude in two 'phalanges,' those 



