155 



FKINGILLID^E, OR FINCHES, 



THE most extensive of the conic billed order, and 

 one that every observer may understand, when he 

 looks to the sparrow, chaffinch, greenfinch, or any 

 of those small thick-billed birds which feed on seeds 

 and kernels. It is one of the beauties of the natural 

 arrangement, that it keeps together large families of 

 similar habits, size, and often of country ; so that 

 by seeing two or three, we can form a tolerably 

 correct idea of the whole. 



The first bird upon our list is no less remarkable 

 for its rarity than for the interest which attaches 

 to its station in this family. We shall first describe 

 it, and then employ it to explain in a familiar man- 

 ner our views on the natural arrangement of the 

 group to which it more especially belongs ; a group 

 which, from not having been well understood, is at 

 this moment involved in the greatest confusion. 

 This digression will also give a practical illustration 

 of those principles upon which, as we conceive, all 

 the groups of nature are diversified. The bird before 

 us is the most pre-eminent type we have yet seen 

 of this family, and we shall therefore distinguish it 

 as a new sub-genus, under the name of 



