Chapter XV. 



THE FINCHES. 



If the representatives of Wild Life being depicted in 

 these pages were capable of reading what is said about them, 

 one might easily imagine that the regular denizens of the 

 district would be inclined to resent the precedence given to 

 some of the migrants. "Why should the summer boarders 

 be more thought of than we who remain the whole year 

 round?" That is perhaps the form which the query might 

 take, and as we feel that there is some reason for it, we hasten 

 to make amends by devoting attention without further loss 

 of time to some of our feathered friends who cheer us winter 

 and summer alike. We begin with some of the great finch 

 family. 



The FringilUdae, as they are called, find their home 

 pretty nearly all over the temperate portions of the northern 

 hemisphere. There is no English country boy who does not 

 know the goldfinch, the chaffinch, the green and brown linnets, 

 the bullfinch, the brambling, the buntings including the famil- 

 iar yellow-hammer, to say nothing of the commonest of all, 

 the sparrows. All these are members of the finch family, 

 and hence, judging from the British specimens alone, we 

 should have to come to the conclusion that in this family we 

 have a very varied collection indeed, varied in colour, in voice, 

 in habits, and in general conditions of life. If we went over 

 to America we should find even wider differences. There is 

 the well known red cardinal, for example, or Virginian night- 

 ingale, as he is sometimes called. He, too, is a finch. So is 

 his still redder brother of Eastern Mexico, and his bigger- 

 billed but smaller-bodied brother of California. But we must 

 curb our wandering tendencies, and return to the Far East. 



Pere David gives us a description of 38 species under 

 this head in his invaluable book, so that the finch family is 

 well represented in China. Only a few of these can hope to 

 receive detailed attention here. The sparrow, "the avian 

 rat," as one of his recent enemies called him, needs scant 

 description. He is in all places at all times. He speaks for 

 himself. If he is a shade smaller in China than in England, 

 as I think is the case, he is also marked in a slightly different 

 way. The male here is more nearly like his wife. The Eng- 



