CHAPTER V. 



PASSERINE BIRDS concluded. 

 FINCHES, SWALLOWS, SUNBIRDS, &c. 



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 and coarser feet than the more migratory Finches- 



