SCARLET TAN AGEE AND SNOW-BUNTING 
195 
BARN-SWALLOW. 
Hi-run' do e-ryth'ro-gas-tra. 
in our protection that they permitted their ad- 
mirers to approach within ten feet of them. 
The female of this species is widely different 
in color from the male, being dull olive-green 
above and greenish-yellow below. 
THE FINCH AND SPARROW FAMILY. 
Fringillidae. 
This Family is a large one, and it embraces 
the perching-birds with strong beaks, such as the 
finches, sparrows, snow-birds and their near rela- 
tives, and one group of grosbeaks. By their 
beaks you shall know them, — short, and wide at 
the base, like the jaws of a pair of pliers. They 
are made for cracking all seeds which the owner 
does not wish to swallow entire. 
The American 
Cross-bill 1 is a dull-red 
bird with brown wings 
and tail, and its bill is 
so emphatically crossed 
it seems like a deformity 
which must necessarily 
be fatal to a seed-eater. But Nature has her 
own odd ways; and it seems that the scissor 
arrangement of this bird’s beak is to promote 
the husking of pine cones, and the cracking of 
the seeds. 
This is a bird of the North, and in the East 
comes no farther south than a line drawn from 
1 Lox'i-a cur-vi-ros' tra minor. Length, 6.50 inches. 
Colorado to Washington, D. C. In the West it 
descends to Arizona, but everywhere in the 
United States it is only a winter visitor. With 
an opera-glass it is always easily recognized by 
its crossed bill. 
The American Goldfinch 2 is a conspicu- 
ously yellow bird, though quite small. It is a 
plump-bodied, fluffy little bird, all sulphur yel- 
low except a circular black cap atop of its head, 
and black trimmings on its wings and tail. It 
is exquisitely pretty, and, like a feathered co- 
quette, loves to pose on the steep side of a tall 
mullen stalk, with no leaves about to cut off the 
admirers’ view. It is sociable, also, and loves 
the garden, orchards and meadows of the self- 
elected “lord of creation,” man. 
As a weed-destroyer, this bird has few equals. 
It makes a specialty of the seeds of members of 
the Order Compositae, and is especially fond of 
thistles, ragweed, wild lettuce and wild sun- 
flower. (Sylvester D. Judd.) 
The Snow-Bunting 3 comes down from the 
far North, in the dead of winter, when the snow 
SCARLET TANAGER. 
Male and female. 
falls fluffy and deep, and the song-birds of sum- 
mer are basking in the sunshine of the South. 
They do not appear every winter, however. 
2 As-tray-a-li'nus tris'tis. Length, 5 inches. 
3 Pus-ser-i'na ni-val'is. Length, 61 inches. 
