FRINGILLIDA. — PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 107 
Lamproternine erewne Pere rer *) eo. Garrulinge 
i ) Agelaine = ee ee Fregiline 
To Fringillide 
To Buceride 
‘However this transportation may be hereafter ac- 
‘counted for, there can be no doubt that Fregilus is 
analogous to Agelaius, and that this latter genus evinces _ 
‘the closest approximation to the short-billed finches. 
With these facts before us, we must rest satisfied, and 
at once proceed to that family which is next in the 
-eonirostral circle. : 
_ (123.) The Frinemur., or finches, form the raso- 
tial family of the Conirostres. They are, indeed, the 
‘smallest in size of any in the whole circle ; and this cir- 
-cumstance appears to militate against their being repre- 
sentatives of the large gallinaceous birds ; and would 
tather intimate that they were analogous to the Tenui- 
‘rostres among birds, and the Glires among quadrupeds. 
Nevertheless, although they do not possess this indica- 
tion of the rasorial type, they exhibit nearly all the others: 
they have, for instance, the hardest and most conic bills ; 
they are the most tame, and the most easily domesti- 
cated ; they feed almost entirely upon seeds ; and there 
are more crested birds among them than in any other 
- family group of the Conirostres. There are also indirect 
evidences of this analogy, which can by no means be 
got over. We have already seen that a gradual short- 
ening of the bill takes place from the typical starlings 
(Sturnine) to the maize-birds (Agelaine), and that some 
of these latter so closely resemble finches, that only an _ 
experienced naturalist can point out their. distinction. 
Then, upon looking to the opposite group of the Coni- 
rostres, it is no less certain that the hornbills represent 
fe ey. 
mm 
; 
