FRINGILLID^E 155 



Length 4-10 ; wing 2-70 ; tail 1-55 ; tarsus O55 ; culmen 40. 



Adult male in winter. Closely resembles the female. 



Adult female. Like the female of H. funerea. 



Young. Resemble the female. 



Distribution. South Africa from the Transvaal to the Zambesi 

 and Mosambique, extending westward to Ovampo Land (Sharpe). 



Zambesia"in large numbers. Everywhere common" (Kirk); 

 Rustenburg, Transvaal (Lucas) ; Ondongo, Ovampo Land 

 (Andersson). 



Habits. Resemble those of the other species of the genus. Mr. 

 Barratt writes in the " Ibis" for 1876, p. 207, under the synonym 

 H. chalybeata, " I found a few of this species in and around a large 

 fruit-garden, a few miles from Rustenburg. The ones procured 

 were scattered about the hedgerows, where I shot them." Sir 

 John Kirk remarks that the birds are " extremely variable in 

 plumage and feed on grass-seeds." 



Family V. FRINGILLID^E. 



Bill very variable, but usually more or less stout and conical, 

 the edges of the mandibles smooth, the nostrils close to the frontal 

 plumes and nearer the culmen than the commissure. Wing with 

 only nine primaries that are easily found, the outer, if present, being 

 very minute and often displaced by the growth of the next. Tail of 

 twelve feathers. Tarsi covered at the sides by entire laminae, 

 scutellated anteriorly. One complete moult in the year, in autumn, 

 but a partial change of colour in spring, due to the falling off of the 

 worn feather tips. Frequently gregarious and more or less arboreal 

 in their habits, omnivorous in their diet, and generally good songsters. 

 With the exception of the Sparrows and one or two South American 

 species, all the Finches build open nests, usually in trees or bushes, 

 and feed their young on insects and on partially digested food from 

 their crops. Their eggs vary greatly but are usually coloured and 

 spotted or streaked. 



About five hundred and sixty species of Finches are known, 

 distributed over the entire globe excepting only Australasia and the 

 Antarctic regions. 



Dr. Sharpe, in the twelfth volume of the Catalogue of Birds in 

 the British Museum, divides the Fringillidce into three subfamilies, 

 as follows : 



