EMBERIZIN.E. 383 



tlie Dentirostres. The bill is more or less triangular at the base, 

 and the culmen more or less arched. They feed on fruit and 

 insects, build slight nests on trees, and many have a pleasing song. 

 Sclater has published a valuable Monograph of this family, describ- 

 ing many new species. They may be said to stand in the same 

 relation to the rest of the Gonirostres, that the Ampelidce do 

 towards the Dentirostres ; and, indeed, some naturalists hint that 

 the Sylvicolince, part of our Ampelidce, join the Tanagers (vide 

 p. 289). 



Sub-fam. Feingillin^. 



Bill varied in size and form, more or less conical and thick, 

 short and bulged in some, slender and more elongate in others ; 

 wing moderate or long, 1st primary wanting. 



The Finches, as here recognised, constitute an extensive series 

 of birds of considerable variation as regards the form and size of 

 the bill. They are chiefly seed-eaters, cracking small seeds be- 

 tween their mandibles, and rejecting the husk by the joint action 

 of the mandibles and the tongue. 



The male is, in general, more brightly colored than the female, 

 and becomes still more so in the breeding season, not by a fresh 

 moult in all, but chiefly by the shedding of the deciduary 

 margins to the feathers, in some, perhaps, by a change of colour in 

 the feathers themselves. The bill, too, of many becomes darker 

 at this season. Many are colored more or less red, a few yellow. 



The young of most are fed with vegetable food, not with in- 

 sects, as in the Sparrows and Buntings. Many sing pleasingly, 

 and they have a peculiar call note. They are more or less 

 gregarious in winter. The nest is generally neatly made, and the 

 eggs are mostly white, with brown spots and dots, never lined as 

 in the Buntings. They are, with a very few exceptions, confined 

 to the temperate and colder regions of the Northern hemisphere ; 

 and, in India, with one exception, are confined to the Himalayan 

 region, and in many instances only wintering there. 



They may be divided into the following groups, distinguished 

 chiefly by the form of their bill, and mode of coloration, but 

 they intergrade much with each other. 



