ii FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



disregards, or even regards with contempt, the life-long labours of 

 those whose aim is to arrange species according to their affinities, by 

 a careful study of their structure. If only each of the two classes of 

 students could be brought to look with respect and gratitude upon 

 the exertions of the other, I am convinced that both would obtain 

 information which would be useful to them. A knowledge of structural 

 affinities would certainly be useful to the breeder of mules, and would 

 enable the ordinary aviarist to judge correctly which species would be 

 most suitable associates, more particularly in respect to food : on the 

 other hand the student of the dead skins, would, from a knowledge of 

 the habits, actions and songs of the living specimens, be less inclined 

 to give undue importance to slight structural peculiarities. 



All knowledge is science ; therefore, in the present work, I do not 

 intend to ignore the work of the Museum scientist, although it may 

 be convenient not to follow his classification in all its details.* More- 

 over, as already hinted, inasmuch as the rules for the arrangement of 

 groups of species known as genera, are and must be based solely upon 

 structure, without reference to living characteristics ; the aviculturist 

 (who studies the nesting peculiarities, actions, dispositions, modes of 

 courting, and song of his feathered pets) must perforce consider com- 

 paratively slight peculiarities of beak, or the relative length of claws 

 and feathers, when they dissociate birds which correspond in their 

 whole living economy, as of secondary importance. 



A Finch, in the strictest sense of the term, is a member of the 

 subfamily Fringillina, and is characterized by the possession of a stout 

 conical beak, together with the atrophy of the first flight feather in 

 the wing : f the latter limb is long and pointed, with the second, 

 third, and fourth primaries of nearly equal length ; the foot is short, 

 scaled in front, but not at the back. 



Compared with other allied birds to which the title of Finch has 

 been assigned, but most of which actually belong to the family of 

 Weavers, very few living typical Finches ever get into the hands of 

 amateur aviarists ; indeed, owing to their modest colouring, there is 

 but little demand for them ; consequently, unless remarkable for the 

 sweetness of their song, the majority of such as do by chance find 

 their way to the dealers, are sold to the various Zoological Gardens 

 of Great Britain and the Continent. 



* Many of the descriptions in the following pages are but slightly modified reproductions of 

 those by Dr. Sharpe. A.G.B. 



t The flight feathers consist of primaries and secondaries ; the number of the former being 

 normally ten ; but an examination of the wing of a Linnet or any other true Finch, will reveal 

 the fact that the first primary is apparently missing. A.G.B. 



