646 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



prising more than five hundred, scattered all over the globe, with the sole exception of 

 the Australian region, a peculiar distribution, which, according to Wallace, is " hardly 

 to be found in any other family of birds." It is a rather polymorphic group, with an 

 enormous variation in the shape of the conical beak, from the weak and sinuated bills 

 of the snow-flake (Plectrophenax) and its allies, to the enormously powerful grain- 

 crushing mandibles of the grosbeaks, and the odd instrument of the cross-bills (Loxia) 



FIG. 273. Petronia petronia, rock-sparrow (upper right-hand figure); Passer hispaniolensis, Spanish sparrow 

 (upper left) ; P. montanus, tree-sparrow (middle) ; P. domesticus, English sparrow (lower). 



for opening and extracting the seeds of pines and firs from the cones. Also in colora- 

 tion there is a great diversity, though most of the forms are modestly or even plainly 

 dressed in brown and gray, varied with yellow, and spotted and streaked with dusky ; 

 though brilliantly colored species are not missing, as, for instance, our cardinal gros- 

 beaks ( Cardinalis), the nonpareil and some of its allies (Passerina), the Himalayan 

 scarlet (Hcematospiza sipahi), the different Old World bulfinches, etc. 



Sundevall has attempted to divide this vast multitude in two ' phalanges,' those 



