118 COMROSTRES. 



that which they can take at a disadvantage. They 

 are also great plunderers of the nests of other birds. 



The species which may be regarded as forming* the 

 opposite extreme of the division are birds of very 

 different characters and habits. They are of small 

 size, not much disposed to attack other birds for the 

 purpose of preying upon them, and, generally speak- 

 ing, vegetable feeders, though most of them add 

 worms and the larv^ of insects at the time when they 

 have their young. 



These two have been named from the general nature 

 of their feeding — the first, Omnivora, or general 

 feeders ; and the second, Granivora, or feeders upon 



Goldfinch. 



grains, or vegetable seeds. These names are not, in 

 themselves, very precise, as Omnivora is rather too 

 general a name, and other birds are scarcely less 

 omnivorous than these, as, for instance, poultry are 

 very miscellaneous feeders. Granivora is quite as 

 vague, as pigeons, and some other birds, feed as much 

 on the seeds of vegetables as the birds of this division. 

 Still, as applied to the extremes of the division, 

 these names, with some explanation, would not be 

 undescriptive. But it would not be easy to make a 

 perfect separation of the two, for their characters 

 pass so gradually into each other, that there are 

 many genera of which it would be no easy matter to 

 decide whether they are more omnivorous or more 



