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CHAPTER X. 



Passerine Order continued. Conirostres. Conical Beaks. 

 Orioles. Starlings. Habits of. Finch Tribe. Goldfinch. 

 Anecdotes of. Nests rapidly completed. Curious Nests in 

 Africa. Age of small Birds. Canary Birds. Trade in. 

 Bullfinches, Piping. How trained. Boldness of. Affection- 

 ate and social Habits of. Also of Linnets. Use of small Birds 

 in destroying Insects. 



Table X. Order 2. PASSERINE. 



SPHERE are seven genera of this tribe, of which four are 

 foreign ; it is the most numerous, perhaps, of all the 

 divisions, including, as it does, that host of hard-billed birds, 

 of infinite variety, from the Starling down to the Sparrow, 

 which is scattered so widely over the face of the globe. To 

 pretend to enumerate them in a work of this kind would be 

 impossible, and we shall therefore confine ourselves to a few 

 anecdotes, illustrating the habits of some of those species 

 which are most familiarly known. We have placed the 

 Starling at the head of them, as being one of the connecting 

 links between the Grackles and Thrush genera of the pre- 

 ceding table, and those of the present. There is one other 

 bird, the Golden Oriole, indeed, which is a more closely con- 

 necting link, and might, without impropriety, be placed among 

 the conirostral birds, inasmuch as the point of its upper 

 mandible is slightly notched : but we mention the Starling 

 as the best known, the Oriole, or Golden Thrush, being a 

 bird of great rarity in this country, though, when once seen, 

 it cannot fail of being recognised and remembered, the whole 

 plumage, with the exception of the wings and tail, being of 

 a bright orange or golden colour. 



The Starling, although closely resembling the Thrush and 

 Blackbird in some respects, differs from them essentially in 

 others ; and as its beak, on examination, will be found to be 



p 2 



