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FRINGILLIDjE, or finches, 
The most extensive of the conic billed order, and 
one that every observer may understand, when he 
looks to the sparrow, chaffinch, greenfinch, or any 
of those small thick-hilled birds which feed on seeds 
and kernels. It is one of the beauties of the natural 
arrangement, that it keeps together large families of 
similar habits, size, and often of country ; so that 
by seeing two or three, we can form a tolerably 
correct idea of the whole. 
The first bird upon our list is no less remarkable 
for its rarity than for the interest which attaches 
to its station in this family. We shall first describe 
it, and then employ it to explain in a familiar man- 
ner our views on the natural arrangement of the 
group to which it more especially belongs ; a group 
which, from not having been well understood, is at 
this moment involved in the greatest confusion. 
This digression will also give a practical illustration 
of those principles upon which, as we conceive, all 
the groups of nature are diversified. The bird before 
us is the most pre-eminent type we have yet seen 
of this family, and we shall therefore distinguish it 
as a new sub-genus, under the name of 
