INTRODUCTION. iii 



A very small portion of this work, therefore, can be devoted to 

 the Fringillina, or even to the family Fringillida : charming though 

 these are, it cannot be denied that their cousins the Weavers, of the 

 nearly allied family Ploceidce, have taken the hearts of all bird-lovers 

 by storm, and are more generally recognized as "Foreign Finches" 

 than the rightful heirs to the title. 



Of all the Weavers, the so-called " Ornamental Finches " are 

 justly most admired ; entirely unlike any of our British Birds, they are 

 often extremely beautiful in colouring and design ; their songs, though 

 not especially meritorious, are quaint and entertaining : their love 

 dances are highly diverting ; their actions are often sprightly ; lastly 

 the majority of them are by no means difficult to keep either in cage 

 or aviary. 



According to Dr. Sclater, in his Introduction to a Monograph of 

 the Genus Calliste, " a Tanager is a dentirostral Finch ; that is, a bird 

 which, having all the essential characters of the Finch, is yet so far 

 modified, as regards certain parts of its structure, as to fit it for 

 feeding, not on grains and seeds, which are the usual food of the 

 Fringillida, but on soft fruits and insects, the habitual food of the 

 Sylviada" (Warblers). The family Tanagrida, therefore, which contains 

 the most brilliantly coloured of all Finch-like birds, is represented 

 here by the three most regularly imported species, and by one rarely 

 imported. 



On the other hand the singular family Icteridce, which links the 

 Finch-like birds to the Starlings, seems to me so far removed from 

 the typical Finches, and to show so much of the Starling in the 

 character of the legs, and in the acrobatic actions of its members, that 

 it hardly seems to have a claim to be considered in the present work. 

 Of this family I have kept the Bobolink, the Silky Cow-bird, the Red- 

 breasted Marsh-bird with several others, and cannot say that I have 

 found any of them specially interesting pets ; they are extremely 

 nervous, require a good deal of insect food, and their vocal performance, 

 with the exception of that of the Bobolink, which is amusing though 

 excruciating, is in no respect remarkable. The genus Icterus, however, 

 is a notable exception. 



Aberrant Finch-like birds some of them are it is true ; the genus 

 Dolichonyx (containing the Bobolink) being, both in summer and winter 

 plumage, not unlike the typical Weavers, whilst the Cow-birds are 

 more Bunting-like, and the Red-breasted Marsh-bird strongly resembles 

 the Military Troupials, and, therefore, more nearly approaches the true 

 Starlings. 



