310 
CRIMSON-NECKED BULLFINCH. 
extreme limit of their respective genera, and form the links of 
union between Pyrrhula and Fringilla. It is true, that the 
intimate alliance of these two groups would seem to justify 
Illiger, Meyer, and others, in uniting them under the same 
genuss ; but, as Fringilla is so vast in the number of its species, 
and Pyrrhula has a few distinctive characters, we choose to 
follow Temminck, Vieillot, and other naturalists, by arranging 
them generically separate. The closeness of affinity between 
these two birds, when thus properly disposed, affords no good 
reason for the unity of their genera ; for, if we proceed to the 
abolition of all artificial distinction between genera united by 
almost imperceptible gradations, Sylvia would be joined to 
Turdus^ Myiothera to Troglodytes^ Lanius to Muscicopa^ the 
whole of these would be confused together ; and, in fact, orders 
and classes would be considered as genera ; and even the vast 
groups, thus formed, would be still observed to unite insepa- 
rably at their extremes, and we should finally be compelled to 
consider all living bodies, both animal and vegetable, as be- 
longing to one genus. This argument, however, may not 
convince every naturalist of the propriety of our arrangement, 
and they must, therefore, place the two species strictly accord- 
ing to nature, in one genus, and consider the present as a Frin- 
gilla; but how unnatural will then be the situation of Pyrrhula 
vulgaris^ and Pyrrhula enucleator ! 
The inflated form of the bill, the curvature of both mandi- 
bles, very apparent in the superior one, as well as the com- 
pression of both at tip, are obvious characters which distinguish 
the species of Pyrrhula from the Fringillce^ in which both man- 
dibles are nearly straight, and present a conic form on every 
side. 
Berries', and seeds which they extract from the pericarp, 
buds, and young shoots of different plants, constitute the food 
of the bullfinches. They generally frequent forests and bushy 
places, building their nests on small trees, or low branches of 
large ones : The females lay four or five eggs. The greater 
number of the species moult twice a-year ; the sexes differ 
