SKETCHES OF BIRDS. 
CHAPTER I. 
PASSERINE ORDER CONTINUED. CONIROSTRAS. CONI- 
CAL BEAKS. ORIOLES. STARLINGS.—- HABITS OF. — 
FINCH TRIBE. GOLDFINCH. ANECDOTES OF. NESTS 
RAPIDLY COMPLETED. CURIOUS NESTS IN AFRICA. — 
AGE OF SMALL BIRDS. CANARY BIRDS. TRADE IN. 
— BULLFINCHES, PIPING. HOW TRAINED.— BOLDNESS 
OF. — AFFECTIONATE AND SOCIAL HABITS OF. ALSO 
OF LINNETS. — USE OF SMALL BIRDS IN DESTROYING 
INSECTS. 
Table X. Order 2. Passerine. 
There are seven genera of this tribe, of which four 
are foreign : it is the most numerous, perhaps, of all 
the divisions, including, as it does, that host of hard- 
hilled birds, of infinite variety, from the Starling 
down to the Sparrow, which is scattered so widely 
over the face of the globe. To pretend to enumerate 
them in a work of this kind, would he impossible, 
and we shall therefore confine ourselves to a few 
anecdotes, illustrating the habits of some of those 
species which are most familiarly known. We 
have placed the Starling at the head of them, as 
being one of the connecting links between the 
Grackles and Thrush genera of the preceding table, 
and those of the present. There is one other bird, 
the Golden-Oriole, indeed, which is a more closely 
connecting link, and might, without impropriety, be 
VOL. II. B 
