544 



FRINGlLLIDiE. 



the upper parts are of an olive brown, spotted with a 

 darker colour ; lines over and Bunder the eye, and all 

 the under parts whitish, with a dark spot along the 

 centre of each feather ; tail brown, and not so 

 broadly marked with white. The male, in his first 

 plumage, much resembles the adult female. 



The BLUE CARDINAL (G. ctzrulea'), is another 

 species mentioned in Wilson's work. All the upper 

 ports are of a rich purplish blue, but duller on the back, 

 where it is streaked with a dusky colour; wings black, 

 marked with chestnut colour and blue; tail black and 

 forked, slightly edged with bluish, and sometimes 

 minutely tipped with white ; bill of a dusky bluish 

 horn colour ; legs and feet lead colour. 



According to Wilson, " this solitary and retired 

 species inhabits the warmer parts of America, from 

 Guiana, and probably farther south to Virginia. Mr. 

 Bartram saw it during a summer's residence near 

 Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In the United States, how- 

 ever, it is a scarce species, and having but few notes 

 is rarely observed. Their most common call is a 

 loud chuck; and they have also at times a few low 

 sweet-toned notes. They are sometimes kept in 

 cages in Carolina ; but seldom sing in confinement." 

 Of a live individual he received from South Carolina, 

 he observes, " during its stay with me, I fed it on 

 Indian corn, which it seemed to prefer, easily break- 

 ing with its powerful bill the hardest grain. They 

 also feed on hempseed, millet, and the kernels of 

 several kinds of berries. They are timid birds, watch- 

 ful, silent, and active, and generally neat in their 

 plumage. Having never yet met with the nest, I am 

 unable at present to describe it." 



There are several other species of this genus inha- 

 biting South America, though as nothing peculiar has 

 been related of their habits, it will be hardly worth 

 while here to transcribe their names, or to give a de- 

 tailed account of their markings. They are for the 

 most part birds of gaudy, or at least showy plumage, 

 and shy and retiring in their habit? ; generally pass- 

 able songsters, and subsisting chiefly on the seeds en- 

 closed in berries, and the kernels of the smaller stone 

 fruits. One species, however, we may just notice, as 

 as it may often be seen in cages in the London bird 

 shops. 



The RED-HEADED CAKDINAL (G. erylhroccphala}, 

 or, as it is often called, Paradise Grosbeak, is a Bra- 

 zilian bird, all over of an ash-colour, except the 

 head (which is adorned w ith a pointed crest,) and the 

 throat, which are bright crimson. It sings through- 

 out the whole year, but with so weak a voice that the 

 slightest noise overpowers it. 



The next group we shall notice are the chaffinches, 

 birds to which the generic name Fringilla has by 

 some been more particularly restricted, not, however, 

 as we should say, -very judiciously. As a group, the 

 Fringil&da are especially distinguished as seed-eating 

 birds, and many of its forms, as the siskins, linnets, 

 canaries, and true grosbeaks (Coccothraustes}, are ex- 

 clusively vegetable feeders, at no period of their 

 existence touching animal food in any shape what- 

 ever, even the nestlings being fed entirely with 

 vegetable diet ejected from the craws of the old birds. 

 But this is not the case with the chaffinches, for the 

 adult chaffinch and bramblefinch of this country 

 (the types of the division) subsist much on insects of 

 various kinds, and their young are always brought 

 up wholly upon insects. This is in some degree 

 indicated by their structure ; for it will be found, 



that those birds which live wholly upon grain require 

 a craw, or considerable dilatation of the gullet, which 

 forms a receptacle in which the food may macerate 

 and soften for some time before it is taken into the 

 stomach ; and where this occurs the stomach or gizzard 

 will generally be found smaller and less muscular 

 than in species where the craw is wanting, or compa- 

 ratively small, as will be observed bv comparing the 

 craw and gizzard of a common chaffinch with those 

 of the equally common green gr&sbeak. In the 

 chaffinch the craw is but very small, and in the 

 bramblefinch it is hardly observable, while the 

 stomachs of both these species are larger than in 

 those birds which live wholly upon grain. The 

 absence of a craw, we believe, in any small bird, 

 indicates the species to be partly, if not wholly 

 insectivorous, and we find nothing of the kind in the 

 Corvidce, or crow family, in the starling family, 

 Sturnidce, or even in the larks, all of which are partly 

 granivorous birds, though subsisting more upon animal 

 food ; and the whole of them being arranged by 

 Cuvier, together with the finches, in his tribe or sub- 

 order Conirostres, though they would certainly range 

 much more naturally as a separate and equivalent 

 division, which by some has been indicated by the 

 name Omnivori, signifying " birds which will eat all 

 that is eatable." There is, however, a more definite 

 character than the absence of craw, by which these 

 birds might be separated from the fringillidous races ; 

 we allude to a peculiarity in the plumification. In 

 all the Corvidce, the Sturnidce, and the larks, the 

 young birds shed their whole plumage at the first 

 moult, including the wing and tail primaries, and a 

 few weeks after quitting the nest ; but in the Frhigi/- 

 lidce, as in all the true Dcntirostres, although the fir?l 

 clothing feathers are in most cases changed even 

 more early *, the wing and tail primaries are in no 

 instance that we are aware of shed until the second 

 general autumnal change of plumage, and this holds 

 even in species which, as the pipits and wagtails, 

 moult their clothing-feathers twice in the year, as we 

 can safely assert from repeated and careful observa- 

 tion ; so that, curious as it may seem of species 

 which so much resemble as to be popularly (and even 

 scientifically by the older naturalists) arranged toge- 

 ther in a single genus, lark, it is nevertheless a 

 certain fact, that, while the true larks (Aluuda] change 

 their wing and tail primaries almost immediately after 

 leaving the nest, the pipits (or, as they are often 

 called, titlarks) do not shed theirs until the third 

 (including the vernal) time that they change their 

 clothing-feathers. W 7 e may observe, also, that there 

 are some species, as the swallow tribes and the 

 bearded reed bird, which appear to change the tail- 

 feathers at the first moult, but not the wing primaries. 

 The latter species is indeed more peculiar in its 

 characters than any other bird we know, and will 

 range naturally with no fstnii'y whatever. It is also 

 the only bird we know of allied to the JJeniirostrrs 

 which exhibits a craw, from which it differs strikingly 

 from all the members of that division. To return, 

 however, to the consideration of this character, 

 although its absence appears invariably to indicate 

 that a species is at least partly insectivorous, its 

 presence does not in all instances prove the reverse ; 



In the blackcap, and some other dentirostral birds, tbe nest- 

 ling feathers of the breast are changing even before the primaries 

 have attained their full length. 



