GROSBEAKS. 547 



with a wide and broadly arched palate (Amj)lipalatales), and those with tlie nari-ower 

 and scarcely arched i)alale (Aicliiialatalesj. In the latter are conijirised the forms 

 which we regard as the most specialized forms, chiefly American. In this division 

 we find all our North American sjjarrows, Ammodromus, Zonotrichia, SpizeHa., 

 Jfehnpiza, J'cticdHi, Jitnco, etc., etc., also the I'ityliiue, including the cardinal 

 {Cardinalis cardinuUs) and the rose-breasted grosbeak {llabia Itidoviciana) figured 

 in the cut on the plate facing page 544. Closely allied to the foregoing iVnierican 

 forms, which make up the b\ilk of the plialanx, are the Old World Ii^niberiziiiai or 

 buntings, of which two re])resentatives are illustrated in our next cut, viz., the ortolan 

 {Emberiza hortnlana), tlie bird to whom this name l)y right belongs, a common Euro- 

 pean species, wliich during the autumnal migrations is caught in great numbers for 

 the table, tlie other being the black-headed bunting ( Granativora 7iiel(inoaph(da), a 

 large and handsome species, intensely yellow beneath, and confined to the Mediterra- 

 nean subregion from Italy eastward, migrating to India in winter. 



The Am]ili|>al;itales are mostly Old World birds and contain the tyjiical finches. 

 In North America, however, we have a number of species belonging to many different 

 genera, for instance, Carporacus, Acanthis, Leucosticte, etc., but no true finches 

 occur in South Atnei-ica with the exception of several goldfinches (Spitu/s), a genus 

 strictly arcloga^an, but with a distribution somewhat analogous to thfit of the 

 American kingfishers. Two types of this 'phalanx' are illustrated in this volume, 

 both very familiar indeed to our readers, but in a somewhat disagreeable way, for the 

 lower figure of the acconi])anying cut rej)resents, needless to say, a bird whose phe- 

 nomenal increase, after having been idiotically introduced into this country, has 

 given rise to considerable talk, but, alas ! as yet only little action ; Avhilc the wild 

 stock of our domesticated canary, yellow and olive, is figured in the plate facing 

 page 544. 



As remarked at the beginning of the Passeroidew, we regard the true grosbeaks 

 as the highest specialized finches, represented in Europe by the haw-finch ((Wco- 

 thraustes coccothraiiMc.f), and in this continent by the evening grosbeak {Ilfsperip/ioiia 

 vespertina). Their bills are enormously thick, heavy, and so liigh that their upper 

 contours almost form one continuous curve with that of the head. 



Leonhabd Stejnegek. 



