296 FRINGILLID^E. 



Family. FRINGILLID.E. 



Birds with conical bill, usually entire at the tip, the lower mandible generally 

 of the same proportions as the upper, but in some deeper ; margin of bill not 

 toothed or indented ; wings moderate ; tail moderate or short, even, rounded 

 or emarginate; feet fitted for walking on the ground. They are chiefly 

 ground-feeders, and while some may be said to be omnivorous, others feed 

 almost exclusively on grain. They nidificate on trees, holes in rocks, or 

 banks of nullahs and river beds. Plumage generally plain, in some only 

 sandy. They are usually possessed of much intelligence, and .there are 

 among them some of the most familiar birds, which are the most appreciable 

 songsters. The gizzard of many is thick and muscular, and in such cases 

 the birds swallow stone, or gravel, to assist the trituration of the seeds they 

 feed pn. 



Sub-Family. COCCOTHRAUSTIN.E. 



Bill very stout, otherwise as in the family. 



808. Coccothraustes humii, Sharpe, P. z. S. 1886, p. 97; 



id. Cat. B. Br. Mus. xii. p. 40. Coccothraustes vulgaris (nee. Z.), Hume, 

 Ibis, 1869, p. 456 ; id. Str. F. vii. pp. 416, 462. The PUNJAB GROSBEAK. 



Above pale chocolate brown, with a broad ashy grey collar ; lower back, 

 rump and upper tail coverts pale cinnamon brown ; lesser wing coverts dark 

 brown, nearly black, the median series ashy white, the bases only black ; 

 greater coverts blackish brown, externally ashy white, primaries with a large 

 white spot about the middle of the inner webs ; sides of the body tawny or 

 orange brown ; tail blackish and edged with brown, the middle one cinnamon 

 brown, externally ashy towards the end, and the rest are white tipped ; 

 lower abdomen white ; crown of head pale cinnamon buff ; a narrow black line 

 along the forehead continued as a patch in the loral region, and along the base 

 of the mandible extending on to the chin and throat, the upper edges of 

 which are shaded with fulvous. 



Length. 6-75 inches ; wing 3*8 ; tail 2-35 ; tarsus o'8; culmen o 75. 



Hob. N.-W. Punjab and Attock. 



Gen. Mycerobas. Hodgs. 



Bill extremely thick, as deep as long, very nearly conic ; upper mandible 

 compressed, and slightly bent over, dentate at base. Commissure sinuate. 



809. Mycerobas melanoxanthus (Hodgs.), Bp. Consp. Av., 



p. 505 ; Jerd., B. Ind. ii. p. 386, No. 772. Coccothraustes melanoxanthus, 



Hodgs., As. Res. xix. p. 150 ; id. J. A. S. B. xiii. p. 950, pi. fig. 3 ; Gould, 



B. Asia v. pi. 20; Bp., Consp. Av. i. p. 505; Jerd., B. Ind.ii.p. 386; 



Hume, Str. F. 1879, p. 107 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xii. p. 41. The 

 SPOTTED GROSBEAK. 



