154 
EEArTIFUL EIEDS. 
The principal character which distinguishes these 
birds from all others is the conic form, strength, and 
comparative shortness of the bill, which is most highly 
developed in the 
genus coccothraustes. 
In the sub-families, 
genera, and sub- 
genera, that serve to 
connect these bii’ds 
with the neighbour- 
ing groups, a gradual 
modilication in the 
form of the bill may be observed ; they are all admir- 
ably fitted for gathering or picking up, and crushing 
the different grains and berries, fruits and kernels 
upon which they feed, and some of them exhibit a 
peculiar and beautiful adaptation, which enables them 
to wrench from their pedicles the firmly-rooted seeds 
of the fir-cones, or to divide the hardest shells. In 
some of the species the colours are exceedingly rich 
and bright, and beautifully combined ; but in many 
they are didl and inconspicuous. The legs are of 
moderate length, and the three toes which are in 
front are cleft to their base, so that the birds can 
freely move both upon the ground and among trees. 
The species are so very numerous that no general 
description will apply equally to the whole group : 
some of the individual peculiarities will be described 
as we’ proceed in noticing the principal subordinate 
divisions. 
The species of this family, as just observed, are 
very numerous, and the similitude that many of them 
