46 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



species, does not apply to some of the foreigners, which hop and never 

 run ; neither, if universal, would it serve to distinguish them from the 

 typical Fringilline genus Fringil/a, or from Sycalis. 



Dr. Sharpe gives the following characters: "Cutting- edges of the 

 mandibles not conterminous, leaving a gap in the outline of the closed 

 bill; mandibular angle at chin very acute." In his notes on the family 

 Fringillidce, however, he says : " No one has as yet propounded a satisfactory 

 classification of the FringillidtB, the difficulty consisting in the complete 

 connection which exists between the various genera of Finches and 

 Buntings, and such ornithologists only who have not entered into a detailed 

 study of this family will speak of the Finches, Buntings, and their allies, 

 as if they constituted well-defined families. And one who has worked 

 upon a large or small fragment of the family must acknowledge that the 

 definition of the genera is difficult and the recognition of subfamilies 

 almost impossible. The Fringillida naturally group themselves into 

 three divisions Grosbeaks, Finches, and Buntings; but numerous forms 

 connect them, being referable to the confines of any of the three groups. 

 Thus Cardinalis will probably be fcmnd from its osteology to be a 

 Bunting with the aspect of a Grosbeak ; while Urocynchramus is certainly 

 a Bunting with the aspect of a Rose-Finch, or, if it be preferred, a 

 Rose-Finch with the bill of a Bunting." 



"Every division of the family is therefore to be accepted on the 

 score of convenience, rather than as having a foundation of solid 

 structural characters."- Catalogue of Birds, vol. xn. 



For some time it was doubted whether the Buntings, like the 

 other Finches, fed their young from the crop; but, since the publication 

 of the first edition of this work, I and others have conclusively proved 

 that they do so feed them whilst in their unfeathered condition, although 

 they begin to give broken up insect food for a short time before the 

 young are ready to fly. 



I have proved that Sycalis, a very Bunting-like genus of Finches, 

 does feed from the crop, and anyone may see for himself that Passer 

 does so;* all the true Finches and the small Ploceine Finches have 

 the same characteristic: it would therefore be extremely odd if the 

 Buntings should be an exception to the rule: indeed the fact, attested 

 by Dr. Carl Russ and Herr August Wiener, that the Indigo Bunting 

 has been successfully crossed with the Canary, seems almost to prove 

 the regurgitating faculty to be a property of the Emberizina, in common 

 with other Finches. 



Even this fact has been denied by some of those who might as well be blind, for all the 

 use they appear to have made of their eyes. 



