FRINGILLID^ : FINCHES, BUNTINGS, SPARROWS, ETC. 339 
16. Family FRINGILLID^ : Finches, etc. 
Conirostrdl Oscines with 
9 primaries. — The largest 
North American family, 
comprising about one- 
seventh (123 : 888) of all 
our birds, and the most 
extensive group of its 
grade in ornithology. As 
ordinarily constituted, it 
represents, in round num- 
bers 500 current species 
and 100 genera, of nearly 
all parts of the world, ex- 
cept Australia, but more 
particularly of the northern 
hemisphere and through- 
out America, where the 
group attains its maximum 
development. Any one 
United States locality of 
average attractiveness to 
birds has a bird-fauna of over 200 species ; and if it be away from the sea-coast, and conse- 
quently uninhabited by marine birds, about one-fourth of its species are Sylvicolidce and 
FringillidcB together — the latter somewhat in excess of the former. It is not easy, therefore, 
to give undue prominence to these two families. 
The FringillidcB are more particularly what used to be called conirostral" birds, in dis- 
tinction from fissirostres," as the swallows, swifts, and goatsuckers, " tenuirostres," as hum- 
ming-birds and creepers, and dentirostres," as warblers, vireos, and most of the preceding 
families. The bill approaches nearest the ideal cone, combining strength to crush seeds, with 
delicacy of touch to secure minute objects. The cone is sometimes nearly expressed, but is 
more frequently turgid or conoidal, convex in most directions or, again, so contracted that some 
of its outlines are concave. The nostrils are always situated high up — nearer the culmen than 
the cutting edge of the bill ; they are usually exposed, but in many, chiefly boreal, genera, the 
base of the bill is furnished with a ruff or two tufts of antrorse feathers more or less completely 
covering the openings. The cutting edges of the bill may be slightly notched, but are usually 
plain. There are usually a few inconspicuous bristles about the rictus, sometimes wanting, 
sometimes highly developed, as in our grosbeaks. The wings are endlessly varied in shape, 
but agree in possessing only nine developed primaries ; the tail is equally variable in form, but 
always has twelve rectrices. The feet show a strictly Oscine or laminiplantar podotheca, 
scutellate in front, covered on each side with an undivided plate, producing a sharp ridge 
behind. None of these members offer extreme phases of development in any of our species. 
But the most tangible characteristic of the family is angulation of the commissure. The 
commissure runs in a straight line, or with a slight curve, to or near to the base of the bill, and 
is then more or less abruptly bent dowTi at a varying angle — the cutting edge of the upper 
mandible forming a reentrance, that of the lower mandible a corresponding salience. In 
familiar terms, we might say that the corners of the mouth are drawn down — that the Finches, 
though very merry little birds, are literally down in the mouth." In the great majority of 
cases this feature is unmistakable, and in the grosbeaks, for example, it is very strongly marked 
Fig. 205. — European Chaffinch {Fringilla coelebs). (After Dixon.) 
