60 MANUAL 



Note. — Both the Shrikes and the Vireos would seem, at 

 first, to resemble several other families, more especially the 

 Flycatchers, but a few moments consideration will convince 

 one of the great gap that lies between the two, and show how 

 distinct and individual they really are. 



FAMILY XVI FRINGILLIDAE THE FINCHES 

 SPARROWS ETC 



Latin Fringilla, " the chaffinch." 



The FringillidcB are, without doubt, the largest and the 

 most complex family with which the student will have to deal> 

 in his study of Ornithology, though the character of a Finch 

 or of a Sparrow would not easily be mistaken. Next to them, 

 on the American continent at least, come the Sylvicolidce, of 

 which we have already treated. Their numbers are immense, 

 their forms varied — often greatly and curiously so — and 

 they are distributed so universally in almost every possible 

 and conceivable location, as to render them, at once, among 

 the most familiar objects of the animate creation in any given 

 location. Sparrows and Finches occur everywhere through- 

 out North America, in greater or less numbers, at all times of 

 the year : As migrants, replaced by distinct and separate spe- 

 cies at different times of the year, as summer residents, and 

 again as winter visitors and residents of still different species 

 and varieties. All sorts of localities have their peculiar spe- 

 cies. Their food is varied and almost anything that comes in 

 their way, though, for the most part, consisting of grains and 

 seeds. They are, generally speaking, gregarious — often go- 

 ing about in immense flocks, especially in the spring, fall, and 

 winter. Most of them are fine singers ; and their colors, with 

 a few exceptions, are modest and somber. 



The family is well characterized, in general, by the old-time 

 name for the group of " Conirostres " or cone-bills, or the cone- 

 shaped bills. Though few people would mistake the general 

 form, shape, and contour of a Finch or Sparrow, yet to define 

 properly the family were a very difficult thing to do. It were 



