356 THE LARK. 



to hear more about my friend the chatterer, or about its companions, from 

 whom it probably got separated, and who are probably still somewhere in 

 this part of the North. "—Northern Chronicle. [On the 11th March, the 

 bird, or a similar one, was caught at Rothesfield, Markinch, and taken 

 possession of by Miss Cooper ) but it only lived about a fortnight. 

 Perhaps the confinement and improper food hastened its death. It is 

 being stuffed.] 



The next division in this order of the Insessores is the 

 Gunirostres of Cuvier. 



TRIBE III. 



CONIROSTRES. GUV. 



This tribe includes all the birds of the two orders of 

 Temminck — the " Omnivores" and " Granivores" — that is, 

 «Z?-eaters and c/rcmi-e&ters ; the crows and starlings being the 

 typical Omnivores. The rest of the families in this extensive 

 tribe — which includes the finches, buntings, larks, sparrows, 

 linnets, &c. — feed chiefly on grain and seeds, therefore called 

 Granivores, although such as the sparrows and larks feed chiefly 

 on worms and insects ; but, when hard pressed, every creature 

 is omnivorous rather than starve, and none more so than man 

 himself, who when pressed by hunger will eat his fellow-man. 



Family I. 



Fringillltle. 



This family embraces all the genera known as the finches, or 

 hard-hilled birds, in distinction to the swallows, thrushes, 

 warblers, wrens, fly-catchers, &c, which feed chiefly on insects, 

 larvae, worms, &c, and called the soft-billed birds. The more 

 typical finches have their bill strong and conical, the cutting 

 margins entire ; but the Alaudina, the larks, come nearer the 

 pipits, genus A?ithus, which belong to the family of the 

 Sylviadte, in the last or Dentirostral tribe. The true larks 

 incline to the pipits, as the thicker-billed larks lead into the 

 buntings and finches, gradually conducting us back to the 



