56 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Genus COCCOTHRAUSTES. 



The Grosbeaks were included by Linnaeus in his genus Loxia, and are 

 closely allied to the Crossbills. Brisson established the genus Coccothraustes 

 for their reception in 1760 in his ' Ornithologia/ iii. p. 218, making the 

 Common Hawfinch, his Coccothraustes coccothraustes , the type. 



The Hawfinches may be distinguished by their very large bills, which 

 are nearly as long as the tarsus, and are so thick that the ridge of the 

 upper mandible forms almost a continuous curve with the contour of the 

 head. The wings and tail are black, in some species glossy black, but 

 there are generally white patches on many of the feathers of one or the 

 other. None of the species have white rumps. 



The geographical distribution of this genus is almost precisely the same 

 as that of the Crossbills, the Rose-Finches, and the Bullfinches, to which 

 they are so closely allied as to be scarcely generically separable. They 

 inhabit the Palsearctic and Nearctic Regions south of the Arctic circle, 

 beyond the former extending as far south as the southern slopes of the 

 Himalayas, and in the latter having a still more southern range, breeding 

 not only in Mexico but also in the mountains of Guatemala. The 

 number of species in the genus probably does not exceed a dozen. Only 

 one species occurs in Europe, which is a resident in the British Islands. 



Most of the Grosbeaks are inhabitants of pine-forests ; but the European 

 species is most partial to beech- and oak-woods. Except during the 

 breeding-season they are gregarious in their habits. They are almost 

 omnivorous in their diet, feeding alike on seeds, fruit, and insects. None 

 of them have any great powers of song. They breed in trees at various 

 heights from the ground, and their nests are formed on a similar model to 

 that of the Bullfinch. Very little concerning the eggs of the Grosbeaks 

 is known, beyond those of the European species ; but they probably do 

 not differ in character from them. 



