340 
SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — FA SSEBES — OSCINES. 
indeed ; but iu some of the smaller-billed forms, and especially those with slender bill, it is 
hardly perceptible. On the whole, however, it is a good character, and at any rate it is the 
most reliable external feature that can be found. It separates our fringilline birds pretty 
trenchantly from other 9-primaried Oscines except Icteridce, and most of these may be dis- 
tinguished by the characters given beyond. 
Taking their characters all together, Fringillidce may be defined as 9-primaried conirostral 
laminiplantar oscine Passeres with axis of bill at an angle with that of skull, and nostrils 
nearer culmen than cutting edge of bill. 
When we come, however, to consider this great group of conirostral Oscines in its entirety, 
as compared with bordering families like the Old World PIoceidcB, or the Icteridce, and espe- 
cially the Tanagridce, of the New, the difficulty if not the impossibility of fi-amiug a perfect 
diagnosis becomes apparent, and I am not aware that any attempts at rigid definition have 
proven successful. Ornithologists are nearly agreed what birds to call fringilline, without being 
so well prepared to say what fringilline" means. The subdivisions of the family, as might 
be expected, are still conventional, and varying with every leading writer. Our species might 
be thrown into several groups, but the distinctions would be more or less arbitrary and not 
readily perceived. It is therefore best to waive the question, and simply collocate the genera in 
orderly sequence. 
The Fringillidm are popularly known by several different names. Here belong all the 
sparrows, with the allied birds called finches, buntings, linnets, grosbeaks and crossbills. In 
the following pages I describe 123 species and subspecies, mostly well determined, and ascer- 
tained to occur within our limits, referring them to 37 genera, as the custom is, although I 
think this number of genera altogether too large. Two of them. Passer doniesticus and P. mon- 
ianus, are imported and naturalized. Species occur throughout our country, in every situation, 
and many of them are among our most abundant and familiar birds. They are all granivorous 
— seed-eaters, but many feed extensively on buds, fruits, and other soft vegetable substances, 
as well as on insects. They are not so perfectly migratory as the exclusively insectivorous 
birds, the nature of whose food requires prompt removal at the approach of cold weather ; but, 
with some exceptions, they withdraw from their breeding places in the fall to spend the winter 
farther south, and to return in the spring. With a few signal exceptions they are not truly 
gregarious birds, though they often associate in large companies, assembled in community of 
interest. The modes of nesting are too various to be here summarized. Nearly all the finches 
sing, with varying ability and effect ; some of them are among our most dehghtful vocalists. 
As a rule, they are plainly clad — even meanly, in comparison with some of our sylvan 
beauties ; but among them are birds of elegant and striking colors. Among the highly-colored 
ones, the sexes are more or less unlike, and other changes, with age and season, are strongly 
marked; the reverse is the case with the rest. 
The unpractised student will have more trouble in this family than elsewhere in identifying 
his specimens. In the first place, the genera and species are very numerous, and so variously 
interrelated that no satisfactory subfamilies have been established; they are therefore not 
parcelled out in sets. Secondly, all the genera cannot be discriminated in a line of type. To 
meet the difficulty, I have caused the family to be profusely illustrated with cuts of more than 
average excellence, and attempted a tabular analysis of the genera, which, though necessarily 
defective, will doubtless help to some extent. Speaking roundly, there are three lots of 
genera : (a) Loxiine, mostly boreal birds, sexed unlike, J often red, 9 dull, no blue, colors 
massed or streaky, biU usually ruffed at base, wings pointed, tail forked, feet weak: (b) 
Spizelline, everywhere, mostly small streaked and spotted species, sexed alike, may be 
yellowed but are never red or blue, wings, tail, and feet various ; (c) Spizine, mostly south- 
erly, sexed unlike, ^ often red or blue, bill unruffed, wings, tail, and feet various; — but 
nothing will serve to distinguish these groups unexceptionally. 
