FINCHES B UNTINGS. 



363 



From these families which lie on the borderland of the finches, we pass to 

 the family Fringillidce. The latter family is one of the largest 

 in the whole series of the Passeriformes. It is almost universal The Finches. 

 in its distribution, and comprises three sub-families : the gros- Family 



beaks (Coccothraustince), the true finches (Fringillince), and Fringillidce. 

 the buntings (Emberizince). 



In these birds, of which our common hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) 

 is the type, the bill is large and swollen, and the nasal bones are produced 

 backwards beyond the front lino of the bony orbit. There 

 are no less than twenty-three genera of grosbeaks, and they The Grosbeaks, 

 are represented in nearly every quarter of the globe. The Sub-family 

 northern forms are Coccothraustes in the Old World, and Coccothraustince. 

 Ligurinus, of which our common greenfinch (Ligurinus 

 clitoris) is the type. In North America Hedymeles is the prevailing form, 

 while in the Himalayas we have Mycerobas and Pycnorhamphus. The smaller 

 grosbeaks are principally neo-tropical, and are represented by the genera 

 Spermophila, and in the Galapagos Islands by Geospiza and Camarhynchus. 

 The cardinal grosbeaks (Cardinalis) are inhabitants of the Southern United 

 States as far as British Honduras in Central America, and species of the 

 genus are also found in Venezuela and Trinidad. 



This family embraces all the best known of the finches. The type may be 

 said to be our common chaffinch (Fringilla ccdebs), but all the linnets, siskins, 

 goldfinches, and other familiar birds are part and parcel of 

 this sub-family. The bill is less massive than in the gros- The Finches. 

 beaks, and the upper mandible is not produced backwards Sub-family 

 beyond the front line of the orbit ; Fringillince. 

 otherwise the angle of the genys is 

 much the same as in the grosbeaks. 



The finches constitute a very numerous sub-family, 

 and many beautiful birds are embraced within its 

 limits. Besides our own European forms mentioned 

 above, there are many interesting tropical genera, such 

 as the rose-finches (Carpodacus), which are found in 

 North America, as well as in Northern Europe and 

 Asia, being especially abundant in the Himalayas. 

 The sparrows all belong to this group of finches, as 

 well as the canaries, which are principally African, 

 Fig. loo. -THE CHAP- an( j the saffron-finches (Sycalis) of South America, 



^ the bullfinches (Pyrrhula) and the crossbills (Loxia). 

 In the buntings there is generally a gap between the two mandibles, and 

 the angle of the lower mandible is much more acute than in the finches and 

 grosbeaks. The buntings are grain and insect-eating birds, 

 often of bright colours, and distributed over the greater The Buntings. 

 part of the globe, excepting the Australian and Polynesian Sub-family 

 regions. In most of the buntings, as with the finches, there Emberizince. 

 is a complete winter plumage, and the summer dress is 

 gained, not by a thorough moult, but by a shedding of the edges of the winter 

 feathers, so that the underlying pattern comes into prominence. One of the 

 best examples of this phenomenon is the snow-bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis\ 

 which arrives in England in the winter in a rufescent dress. The summer 

 plumage is gradually assumed by the shedding of the pale edges to the 

 feathers ; the black tips to the primary coverts disappear by abrasion, and the 



