28 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Subfamily FRINGILLIN^, or FINCHES. 



The Finclies form a large group of birds, which may at once be distin- 

 guished from all the other subfamilies of the Passeridse by their combina- 

 tion of a stout conical bill with the entire absence of a first primary. The 

 wings are long and pointed, the second, third, and fourth primaries being 

 nearly equal in length. The tarsus is short and scutellated in front, but 

 not at the back. 



The Finches only moult once in the year, in autumn. The spring 

 plumage, where it differs from that of autumn, is attained by casting the 

 ends of the feathers and the small, so to speak, pinnules of the leaflets or 

 pinnae, and sometimes by a simultaneous increase of brilliancy in the 

 colour of the feather itself. The plumage of the young is more spotted 

 and streaked than that of adults, but is moulted in the first autumn. 



The FringillinEe are almost cosmopolitan, being found throughout the 

 world except in the Australian Region, where they are represented by the 

 Weaver-birds (Ploceinse), which are also found throughout the tropical 

 regions of the Old World. There are upwards of 500 species of Finches, 

 which have been divided by ornithologists into upwards of seventy genera. 

 The characters of most of these are, however, of such a trivial nature 

 that to retain many of them, even as a matter of courtesy to their founders, 

 would only bring the science of ornithology into contempt. In the present 

 neglected state of this group of birds it is impossible to form any key to 

 the genera. Sixty species of Finches are found in Europe, of which half 

 are included in the British list. 



Genus LOXIA. 



The genus Loxia is recognized by Linnaeus in the twelfth edition of his 

 ' Systema Naturae,' i. p. 299, and consequently dates from 1766. The 

 Common Crossbill (L. curvirostra) has by common consent been accepted as 

 the type. It is the Loxia loxia of Brisson, and the first species named by 

 Linnaeus, though the Hawfinch, the Grosbeak, the Bullfinch, and other 

 more distantly allied birds are included in the same genus. 



