CHAPTER V. 



PASSERINE BIRDS concluded. 

 FINCHES, SWALLOWS, SUNBIRDS, ETC. 



THE FINCHES. 



THE Finches are the largest family of birds, and out- 

 rival the Thrushes in the wideness of their distribution. 

 They are very easily recognizable by their beak, which is 

 always more or less markedly conical in form, being thick 

 and high at the root and tapering very rapidly to the tip; 

 Of course some have longer and thinner bills than others, 

 but there is no mistaking a Finch's bill. The nostrils are 

 set at the very root, where the forehead feathering begins 

 and the mouth turns down at the corner as in the 

 Starlings. 



The use of this stout beak is to crack seed, the Finches 

 being mainly seed-eaters, and always husking their seed 

 before they swallow it. In fact, they eat all food rather 

 slowly, not gulping it like most birds. They readily eat 

 other things as well as seed, such as fruit, buds, leaves, 

 and insects, and should always have some such food allowed 

 them in captivity. 



Finches are, as a family, small birds ; they are never 

 larger than a Mynah, and some are among the very tiniest 

 of birds. The short-winged Finches of the warmer parts 

 of the Old World, with, for the most part, stouter bills 



