132 THE FINCHES 



portunate fledglings, but also the naked and helpless innocents 

 just hatched from the egg. This little speculation, however, must be 

 taken without prejudice to the one which preceded it a few paces 

 back. I have not time to see if they jar. 



Thus we come, at last, to the linnet, twite, and crossbill, who feed 

 the young wholly in this way, 1 but we might expect, if this were an 

 approximately correct view, to find amongst the various members of 

 the family some traces of the transition, which, accordingly, in by far 

 the greater number, we do find. Besides those species which have 

 been mentioned as feeding their young by both processes, and with 

 each class of food, there is also the goldfinch, 2 who, by some un- 

 accountable oversight, has been left out. To see him doing so, in 

 whichever way, is, of course, a charming sight, but there must, I 

 think, be something still more exquisite in the way that large, conical 

 (also comical) beak of the hawfinch made for the cracking of hard 

 things 3 may be conceived as holding tenderly, as it were, yet with 

 firm, judicious pressure the soft, albeit not lightly yielding, body of 

 some prim fly or coy caterpillar. But may it not be more than one ? 

 since many birds, in feeding their families, do not bring each insect 

 singly, but a number of them together, pressed close in a little heap, 

 all struggling, writhing often, incidentally, bursting by the which 

 thrifty method of procedure those pleasing sensations, derived from 

 the contemplation of maternal love and solicitude in the lower 

 animals, are much enhanced. Possibly, therefore, Coccothraustes 

 adopts this plan also, and, if so, then what a heap it must be in such 

 a beak as his ! 



The above represents, in short compass, our present knowledge 

 as to the parental habits of the Fringillince. It may be added 

 that, like most other birds, the greater number of the species have 

 a due regard for the laws of sanitation, and, by carrying away or 



1 As far as is known, that is to say, up to the present a very saving clause indeed. 



2 Perhaps, too, the chaffinch and greenfinch, or even the crossbill. According to 

 Naumann and others, however, the former bird feeds its young only with insects, as do the 

 other ones with regurgitated seeds. 



3 But see post, p. 155, footnote 1. 



