INSESSORES. 337 



genera, however, the conical form is less obvious, by the lateral 

 and vertical swelling of its outline. The GROSBEAK, or HAW- 

 FINCH, Coccothraustes, (Gr. kokkos, grain; thraud, I break,) has 

 a beak enormously thick in proportion to its length, and in com- 

 parison with the size of the head. In this bird, and, indeed, in 

 all the Finches, the great strength of the beak well adapts it for 

 the uses to which it is destined, as the food of this bird consists 

 of seeds often enclosed in woody capsules of great hardness, or 

 the kernels of stone fruits, which must either be opened by a 

 forcible wrench, or crushed by a strong pressure. The Finch- 

 es, besides seeds, also feed on grain, and occasionally on 

 insects. 



These birds frequent fields, groves, and woodlands ; numbers 

 of them are found in gardens, building their nests in bushes. 

 Many of them, in a state of captivity, are rendered subservient 

 to human improvement, and become favorite domestic pets. So 

 numerous are the genera and species of this family, it is impos- 

 sible, within the limits of this volume, to give any more than the 

 briefest notices of some of the more prominent ones. 



1. We notice the WEAVERS, sub-family, Ploceina, (Gr. plo- 

 keus, a weaver ) 



These birds build their nest upon branches extending over 

 a river or' pool of water ; it is shaped exactly like a chemist's 

 retort, (Plate XI. fig 6 ;) and is suspended from the head ; and 

 the shank, of eight or nine inches length, at the bottom of which 

 is the opening, almost touches the water. It is made of green 

 grass, and curiously woven. The Weaver Birds also construct 

 the celebrated hive-shaped nests. (See nests of the Social 

 Weaver Birds, Plate XL fig. 2.) The Textor, (Lat. Weaver,) 

 erythrorhyncus, (Gr. eruthros, red ; rhunchos, a beak.) The 

 RED-BEAKED WEAVER, of South Africa, companies with Buffa- 

 loes, and obtains from their hides its supply of food. It serves 

 these animals by ridding them of the insects with which their 

 hides are infested, and by flying up on any alarm, it becomes to 

 them as a sentinel, indicating the approach of danger, or of any 

 thing unusual. This bird does not appear to attach itself to any 

 quadruped but the Buffalo. 



THE WIDOW BIRDS, or Whidah Finches, ranged by Swainson 

 under the sub-genus Vidua, (Lat. a widow,) have long boat- 

 shaped tails, with the two middle feathers excessively lengthened, 

 and generally broad and convex. In Senegal and South Africa, 

 is found the Widow Bird of the "English salesmen and fanciers," 

 V.paradisea, about the size of a Canary bird, but the two feathers 

 next to the middle tail- feathers are a foot in length from the base, 



