Ixxxii 
INTRODUCTION. 
the Broadhill, on Aberdeen links, on the 17th of August, 18G7.” This speeiinen was subsequently sent to 
Professor Newton for exhibition at the Meeting of the Zoological Society of London on the 27th January, 
1870. More recently a second example, taken near Brighton, was exhibited at a Meeting of the same 
Society by George Dawson Rowley, Esq. 
Family FRINGILLIDiE. 
The Finches are a family of birds comprising a larger numher of members than the Buntings and the 
Larks, and are even more widely dispersed over the earth’s surface than those of any other group. In a 
work limited to the birds of our own islands, it would be out of place to give an enumeration of even the 
genera into which they have been separated ; and I therefore confine my remarks to such forms as are 
found in Britain. 
Subfamily FRINGILLINA). 
Genus Passer. 
The true Sparrows are principally confined to the northern parts of the Old World. Asia is iidiabited by 
several species, and Europe by four or five, two of which frequent the British Islands. 
162. Passer domesticus .......... Vol. III. PI. XXXII. 
Common or House-Sparrow. 
Distributed generally, but somewhat scarce in the northern j)arts of Scotland. A bird whose faults are 
few in number, and respecting which a sad mistake was made when certain parochial authorities placed a 
price upon its head ; for the good it effects in spring by the capture of Insects far outweighs the value of the 
few grains of corn in a pulpy state ndiich it occasionally takes. 
163. Passer montanus ........... Vol. III. PI. XXXIIl. 
Tree-Sparrow. 
A local species, and consequently much less widely diffused over the British Islands than the preceding: 
not so, however, with regard to its general distribution ; for it is as common at Shanghai and other parts of 
China as it is in Europe. Both in Scotland and Ireland it is local and rare. 
Genus Fringilla. 
The members of this genus of pretty birds as now restricted are but few in number. They all inhabit 
the northern and western portions of the Old World. England is frequented by two species. 
