A PUZZLE IN BIRDS 



but just to do the best he can, and he will surely know 

 a good deal about them, as, indeed, he already does. 



Not only are there sparrows, but grosbeaks, finches, 

 buntings and various others. They are the great 

 seed-eating group of birds, with strong cone-shaped 

 bills, just adapted to splitting or cruohing many kinds 

 of seeds, or extracting them from various sorts of pro- 

 tecting covers. I was trying to think out some easy 

 way to help Ned memorize and classify this difficult 

 family, and I finally hit upon one which makes it very 

 clear to him. Taking the species in the order in 

 which they are ranked in the Handbooks, we may 

 think of them in three groups. The main group is in 

 the middle, the sparrows, or sparrow-like finches — 

 brownish-streaked birds, which mainly stay on or near 

 the ground. Before these are put the hardy finches 

 other than sparrows, which are found with us in winter, 

 many of them coming from the far north — such as the 

 Pine Grosbeak, Crossbills, Redpolls, Pine Siskin, 

 Goldfinch, Snow Bunting, Purple Finch. After the 

 sparrow group we find given the more southerly 

 finches — the Chewink, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Car- 

 dinal, Indigo-bird and several distinctly Southern 

 species. This certainly simplifies the general plan 

 and also helps one to remember the species, each of 

 which it is then "up to" the bird student to learn. In 

 telling of them in this chapter we will follow that 

 order. 



About twice in every decade, I should think, there 



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