228 CLASS AVES. 



and pointed. The upper mandible covers the edges of the 

 lower, is straight, seldom ever inclined towards the end ; the 

 palate is hollow, and longitudinally striated ; the nostrils are 

 round, covered entirely or partially with feathers, very short, 

 and directed forwards. The tongue is thick, rounded, com- 

 pressed at the point, and bifid ; the toes are four in number, 

 three in front, one behind ; the external ones are united at 

 the base, the internal free. The four first remiges are nearly 

 equal with each other, and are the longest of all. 



An immense number of birds, as may be seen by our 

 tabular view, are united together under this division, because 

 they present a common analogy in the form of the bill. All 

 these birds strip the grains or seeds on which they feed of 

 their pericarpe, previous to swallowing them. They have a 

 crop, in which the food is macerated before it passes into the 

 gizzard, and all, with the exception of one, the widow-bird 

 (Emheriza longicauda), are monogamous ; but their mode of 

 life, instincts, and manners, not being the same in all, have 

 given rise to a natural division into small families. 



The species which live between the tropics and the neigh- 

 bouring regions are sedentary, while among those of the 

 temperate and frozen zones some abandon their native coun- 

 try on the approach of winter, to seek in more southern 

 climates the food of which the inclement season has deprived 

 them in their own. Some, at this period, only quit their 

 mountains to descend into the plains, and remove for a 

 greater or less distance from their summer domicile, accord- 

 ing to the greater or less severity of the winter. Some of 

 our finches move still farther south, to give place to others of 

 their own species which come from the north, to pass with us 

 the winter season. The linnets, goldfinches, and sparrows 

 proper never quit us. 



Although all these birds are granivorous, there are some 

 among them which also eat insects ; such are the sparrows, 

 finches, &c. ; but, generally speaking, they only use them 



