F R A X I N E L L A F R 1 N G I L L 1 D JE. 



5M 



pieces of the rock falling down upon him.'' 

 of the common puffin are also held in considerable 

 repute as articles of food ; but as there is only one in 

 the nest hole, as that hole is deep, and as after the 

 egg is dropt one of the birds is usually there, prepared 

 to seize whatever is intruded, the plunderer of a puf- 

 fin's nest requires either hard fingers or a thick glove. 

 With either of these, however, the bird may be easily 

 drawn out. 



THE CRESTED PUFFIN (F. cirrata) has the upper 

 part of a bluish black, and the under dull brown ; the 

 front, the sides of the head, the chin, and part of the 

 coverts, pure white. There are tufts of long thread- 

 like feathers which rise over the eyes, and dividing 

 into two parts, bend over the sides of the neck. 

 These feathers are white ;it their bases, but yellowish 

 at their points. There are three furrows in the- bill ; 

 and a cartilaginous cere at the base of the bill, form- ' 

 ing a sort of rosette at each angle of the gape ; the 

 tarsi and toes are bright orange-yellow, the webs of 

 the feet red, and the claws black. These are the 

 characters of the male bird ; and the length of that 

 species is about nineteen inches. The female is 

 rather less, has a smaller crest, and has only two fur- 

 rows in the bill, but in othae respects the sexes are 

 pretty similar. 



This species is chiefly found in the sea of Kamts- 

 chatka, both on the American and the Siberian side, 

 and also on the shores of the Aleutian islands ; but 

 it is probable that, like their congeners of the Atlantic, 

 they migrate southward during the winter. Their 

 bills are even more powerful than those of the others, 

 but their food is nearly the same, being chiefly crus- 

 taceous animals and shelled mollusca. They are 

 exclusively -day feeders, and though, like the former, 

 they are sometimes found sitting on rocks watching 

 for their prey, they seldom come to land, except during 

 the night. They lodge in holes of the rocks, or in 

 burrows which they themselves excavate in the dry 

 banks, which are generally between three and four 

 feet deep, and no wider at the entrance than will just 

 admit one of the birds, but farther in it is wider. 

 One egg only is produced at a brood, which is rather 

 larger than that of a common duck. This species 

 and the former are not found in the same seas; and 

 though their manners are very similar, they appear 

 to be properly entitled to rank as distinct species. 



NOHTHERN PUFFIN (F. glaciatis}. This species 

 inhabits more northerly than any of the others, and 

 has not been observed except in the Polar Sea, or 

 even there, but on the north coast of America. 

 Among the dreary islands in that region it is, how- 

 ever, one of the most northerly birds. The upper 

 part of it is black, with a collar nearly as large as that 

 of the common puffin ; the cheeks and sides of the 

 head are greyish white ; the quills brown ; the under 

 part white ; the upper mandible of the bill very much 

 elevated, and with three furrows ; the inferior mandi- 

 bles strongly arched ; the feet orange-yellow ; webs 

 red ; and the claws black. The length is nearly the 

 same as that of the common species, being about a 

 foot or thirteen inches. The probability is that its 

 manners differ but little from the one with which we 

 are familiar on the shores of this country ; but there 

 is not much known respecting it. 



FRAXINELLA. Is the Dictamnm frax-inclla of 

 Persoon, an ornamental herbaceous perennial, a native 

 of Germany, a border plant in flower gardens, and 

 is easily propagated by seeds. 



FRAXINUS (Linnaeus). A genus of hardy de- 

 ciduous trees, natives of Europe and North America. 

 They are polygamous, and belong to the natural 

 order Oleinae. Generic character : calyx four-parted 

 or none ; corolla of four petals four-parted or none ; 

 stamens short, anthers oval, two-celled, bursting out- 

 wardly ; stigma nearly sitting, bifid ; fruit two-celled, 

 compressed, winged at top. For an account of the 

 mode of cultivation, see Asn. 



FRINGE TREE is the Ch'tonnnthus rirghrica of 

 Linnaeus. A deciduous flowering shrub or tree, a native 

 of North America. The flowers are elegant, and the 

 plant has always a place in ornamental plantations. 



FRINGILLID^E the Finch family. A very 

 numerous and interesting group of small birds, in some 

 or other of its many species, inhabiting all parts of the 

 globe, and constituting the tribe or sub-order Coniros- 

 tres of Cuvier. They are all seed-eating birds, some, 

 however, being much more exclusively so than others, 

 whose grand office in the economy of nature is to 

 assist, and that in no small degree, in keeping down 

 the excess of certain forms of vegetation, subsisting 

 on the germs of life, so copiously and abundantly 

 distributed by various plants, chiefly of the composite 

 and cruciform races, the extreme and exuberant 

 fertility of which would otherwise enable them to 

 usurp dominion over every other, and so monopolise 

 the soil as to render it unfit for cultivation. The 

 adaptation, however, as in all other similar cases, is 

 of course mutual, and the apparent superfluity of 

 seeds which are annually produced thus enables 

 thousands and millions of beings to enjoy existence to 

 enliven and diversify the face of nature with moving 

 life, and to cheer the still monotony of vegetable 

 beauty by their lively and inspiriting song's of joy 

 and happiness. They, in their turn, furnish food to 

 other races ; and there are several of the smaller 

 birds of prey which draw their chief subsistence 

 from the various tribes, which, together, constitute 

 the comprehensive and very natural family of which 

 we have now to enter upon a description. 



The general character, or that which is the most 

 typical of the group, is to have a sharply-pointed, 

 conical, and, in most cases, a strongly-formed bill, the 

 upper mandible of which advances a little upon the 

 line of the forehead ; the tomia, or cutting edges of 

 the mandibles, are always more or less bent inward, 

 those of the under one more particularly ; and the 

 ' bill is endowed with great power of compression, the 

 mandibles having a separate motion, and the under one 

 having besides, a considerable lateral movement, by 

 means of all which, and with the assistance of the 

 tongue, the birds are enabled to crack with facility 

 the husks of very hard seeds, and to shell them, 

 rejecting the envelope while the kernel remains in the 

 mouth ; the feet have three toes before, and one 

 behind, all of which are entire, and separate to their 

 full extent, and they are adapted cither for perching, 

 or for progressive movement ; upon the ground, this 

 movement is, in most of the species, performed by hop- 

 ping, though some of them can move forward only by 

 alternate steps, while a few advance alike by either 

 method ; these latter, however, have neither move- 

 ment in such perfection as those which are confined 

 to one only. 



As a group, the plumage may be described as 

 being generally of a firmer texture than in the in- 

 sectivorous races, their colours and markings being 

 more decided, and the male is in almost every 



