THE FINCHES. 



THE Finches are a large family. Naturalists have 

 divided them into three groups, each having many 

 members, but we can only deal with a few of them 

 in this chapter. 



There are the Grosbeaks, to which belong the Haw- 

 finch and the Greenfinch, and sundry others which are not 

 seen in the British Isles. Secondly, there are the True 

 Finches, like the Chafiinch, the Brambling, the Goldfinch, 

 the Siskin, the Linnets, the Sparrows, the Bullfinch, the 

 Crossbill, etc. Thirdly, there are the Buntings. 



You will see from this what an important clan this 

 chapter has to do with. Some of the prettiest of our 

 British birds belong to it, and some of our sweetest 

 singers. 



Of the first group, the Grosbeaks, by far the best 

 known to English boys and girls is the GREENFINCH. 

 He is found from Sussex right away up to the Orkneys, 

 though the birds that go so far north are chiefly hardy 

 far-fliers from the Continent. 



He is a handsome fellow, though reckoned less so than 

 the rest of the Finches ; and if ' handsome is as handsome 

 does,' he deserves praise of a double kind. For the 

 number of caterpillars and insects which he consumes or 

 brings to his hungry nestlings is enormous. And as a 

 pair of Greenfinches will sometimes build as many as three 

 or four nests in a year, we may guess how valuable his 

 services are to the farmer and the gardener. On this 



