FAMILY Fringillide. 
that he is a greater insect destroyer than a crop de 
stroyer. 
Family Fringillide. 
FINCHES, SPARROWS, GROSBEAKS, ETC. 
This is the largest and most important family of birds; 
important not only because its members are common in 
all parts of the country, if not the whole world, but also 
because they are, to a certain extent, our best common 
songsters. The list includes some excellent vocalists 
which are surpassed only by the Thrushes, viz.: Purple 
Finch, Evening Grosbeak, Goldfinch, Vesper Sparrow, 
White-crowned Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Field 
Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Chewink, Rose- 
breasted Grosbeak, and Indigo Bunting. These are no 
ordinary singers, and if we should include the more 
southern Cardinal Bird, our American list would be be- 
yond comparison the most musicianly one in the world ! 
The Song Sparrow alone is unexcelled in variety of song- 
motive and in accuracy of pitch. 
The family is distinguished for its broad, stout, conical 
bills, which are strongly built for hard work on gravelly 
soil where seeds are usually distributed, and for the 
crushing of the seed-coating or shell. The development 
of such a bill as this has been instrumental in giving a 
certain character to the voice. That of the Rose-breasted 
Grosbeak is a notable instance; it is modified and mel- 
lowed by the large cavity of the beak. 
As the family is chiefly dependent upon seeds for its 
sustenance, many members are not so migratory as 
they would be did their diet consist wholly of insects. 
The Sparrow tribe is also one with distinctive ground 
habits, and its mixed brown coloring is admirably pro- 
tective ; especially so is the light, neutral tinting of the 
under parts which compensates for the otherwise con- 
spicuous shadow of the dark figure.* 
* This remarkable adaptive coloring of birds and animals has 
been a subject of special study by the artist Mr. Abbott Thayer, 
whose lectures on this topic are supremely instructive and 
interesting. 
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