THE TRUE f INCHES. 95 



the country, in orchards, and retired gardens, they are, as a rule, inhabitants of the edges of 

 forests. 



'' Their more common notes are simple and brief, resembling, according to Wilson, the sounds 

 chip-char. Mr. Bidgway represents them by chip-a-ra'-ree. This song it repeats at brief intervals, 

 and in a pensive tone, and with a singular facility of causing it to seem to come from a greater than 

 the real distance. Besides this it also has a more varied and musical chant, resembling the mellow notes 

 of the Baltimore Oriole. The female also utters similar notes when her nest is approached, and in 

 their mating season, as they move together through the branches, they both utter a low whispering 

 warble in a tone of great sweetness and tenderness. As a whole, this bird may be regarded as a 

 musical performer of very respectable merits. 



" The food of this species is chiefly gleaned among the upper branches, and consists of various 

 coleopterous and other insects and their larvae. Later in the season they consume various kinds of 

 wild berries. 



"When their nest is approached, the male bird usually keeps at a cautious distance, as if fearful 

 of being seen, but his much less gaudy mate hovers about the intruder in the greatest distress. 

 Wilson relates quite a touching instance of the devotion of the parent of this species to its young. 

 Having taken a young bird from the nest and carried it to his friend, Mr. Bartram, it was placed 

 in a cage, and suspended near a nest containing young Orioles, in hopes the parents of the latter 

 would feed it, which they did not do. Its cries, however, attracted its own parent, who assiduously 

 attended it, and supplied it with food for several days, became more and more solicitous for its 

 liberation, and constantly uttered cries of entreaty to its offspring to come out of its prison. At 

 last this was more than Mr. Bartram could endure, and he mounted to the cage, took out the 

 prisoner, and restored it to its parent, who accompanied it in its flight to the woods with notes of 

 great exaltation. 



" Early in August the male begins to moult, and in the course of a few days, dressed in the 

 greenish livery of the female, he is not distinguishable from her or his young family. In this humble 

 garb they leave us, and do not resume their summer plumage until just as they are re-entering our 

 southern borders, where they may be seen in various stages of transformation." 



THE EIGHTH FAMILY OF FINCH-LIKE PERCHING-BIRDS. 

 THE FRINGILLID^E TRUE FINCHES. 



The Finches have only nine primary quills, and are divisible into two sections, distinguished by the 

 form of the bill inside. The first section consists of the wide-palate Finches (Amplipalatales). In 

 the first section the lower mandible has the cutting edges (tomium) of great power, and rising slightly 

 higher on the posterior margin, formed for crushing seeds : the palate is somewhat deeply and broadly 

 arched, with three ridges, rather far apart from one another. The species of this section are mostly 

 characteristic of the Old World, and include among their 

 number all the familiar European Finches and their allies, 

 such as the Bullfinches, Goldfinches, Canaries, Redpolls, Gros- 

 beaks, Chaffinches, and Sparrows. Although a numerous family 

 of birds, the Finches do not offer the great differences in their 

 habits, and a general account of the economy of one of the 

 English species would comprise many of the characteristics of 

 the family generally. It is in the construction of their nests BILL OF FIXCH u\ &XD OF BUNTING (B). 

 that the Finches greatly differ, this being evidenced by that 



of the Chaffinch as compared with that of a Bullfinch. The nest of the former is fully described 

 by Macgillivray : 



" The nest is of moderate size, very neatly constructed, having its exterior composed of moss, 

 lichens, grass, thread, and rags, its interior of wool, feathers, hair, and other suitable materials. Not 

 that all these articles enter into the composition of eveiy nest, for there is great diversity in this 

 respect. When neatly crusted with grey lichens, it is very difficult to distinguish it in the cleft of a 



