April 
lovers. The anatomical characteristics which 
determine the family relationship of this group 
could not be detected at a distance of five feet, 
and yet there are other and more palpable re- 
semblances which would lead even a casual ob- 
server to associate them together. 
The distinctive points of this family, as viewed 
by the field ornithologist, can be best presented 
and remembered by a brief comparison of 
warblers and finches, which are the two largest 
families in America. 
Warblers are uniformly small—from four to 
six and a half inches in length; finches are not 
so uniform in size, but average larger, varying 
from five to nine inches in length. In general 
the finches are rather plainly colored (a rule 
that has several notable exceptions), while the 
warblers, as a class, are strikingly beautiful. 
Any feathery bit of black, white, blue, and gold 
flashing among the branches is likely to be a 
warbler, for there are few other specimens so 
minute and beautiful. 
Some of the finches—for example, several of 
the sparrows—have no merit as songsters, but 
very many of them are quite musical, and some 
are famous, so that as a family they are superior 
vocalists. The warblers are inferior in this re- 
107 
