Genus FRINGILLA. 



Fringilla, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 318 (1766). 



Passer apud Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-As. ii. p. 17 (1811). 



Strwthus apud Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 374. 



Calebs apud Cuvier, fide G. R. Gray, Gen. & Subg. of B. p. 77 (1855). 



The true Finches form, comparatively speaking, a small group of birds which inhabit the 

 Palsearctic and the northern portions of the Oriental and Ethiopian Regions, all the species 

 being found in the Western Palsearctic Region. They are residents or migrants, and frequent 

 groves, woods, and gardens during the summer ; in the winter they collect together in flocks, 

 associating with other allied species, and wander about in search of food. They feed on insects, 

 seeds, and fruits, are active and sprightly in their habits, have a rapid and undulating flight, and a 

 tolerably rich and mellow song. They construct neat, well-formed, cup-shaped nests, which they 

 place on a tree or bush, and deposit purplish white or bluish white eggs, spotted and clouded 

 with deep brown or reddish brown. 



Fringilla ccelebs, the type of the genus, has the bill somewhat long, straight, nearly conical, 

 acute, the tip with an obsolete notch ; nostrils oval, basal, nearly concealed by recurved feathers ; 

 wings moderate, broad, the first quill obsolete, the next four nearly equal, but the third or fourth 

 longest ; tail moderately long, emarginate ; tarsus stoutish, covered in front with four large and 

 three inferior scutellee ; toes rather slender, compressed, claws moderately long, curved, laterally 

 grooved, acute. 



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