110 | \ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIR: 
now take a hasty survey of each of these rimary 
sions. ee 
(126.) The Coccothraustina, or, as s they may be: call 
the hardbills, are the most typical of all the finches, i 
asmuch as they comprise those birds which possess 1 
largest, the most conic, and the most powerful bil 
The whole group is arboreal, —that is, they contain s 
birds only as live entirely among trees, and which ¢ 
not, like the sparrows and buntings, frequent the groun 
in search of their food. Our well-known hawfine 
( Coccothraustes europeéus), although not a strictly or pre= 
eminently typical example, will nevertheless convey avery 
good idea of the general structun 
of these birds; and the greenfinch 
(although even less typical) i 
no bad example. The other natiy 
birds which enter into the abe 
rant genera, are the goldfinches - 
and the linnets. In all these, 
as well as in nearly all the foreign hardbills, the upper — 
mandible is entire. The whole of these birds are 
arranged under the five following genera: — 1. Cocco- 
thraustes; 2. Ploceus; 3. Tiaris; 4. tt 
and, 5. Linaria; the last of which is connected to the 
first by means of the green linnet: (Fringilla chloris 
authors), which is immediately followed by the Europe- 
an hawfinch, in the typical genus Coccothraustes. No 
affinities can possibly be stronger: and this at once closes 
the circle. The genus Coccothraustes seems to be dis- 
tributed in all parts of the world ; and its modifications 
are so remarkable, that we have eoumaiels after a ve 
close analysis of the group, to designate its subgenera: 
at the head of the these, and consequently of the entire 
family, stands the subgenus Pyrenestes, at present com- 
posed of only three or four birds, peculiar to the little- 
known regions of Tropical Africa, where many others, no 
doubt, remain undiscovered. Their bill ( fig. 32. Vol. I.) is 
truly enormous, considering the size of the body ; for itis. 
frequently as deep and as large as the head, and must be — 
