670 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
nest destroyed by a Woodhouse Jay. The Tanagers were abundant, 
Mr. Ligon found, in the cottonwoods along the Rio Grande. 
A female and three young seen by Professor Merrill in Filmore 
Canyon, in the Organ Mountains, were flying about among the oak 
trees, and kept up a continual roundelay of a plaintive, whistling 
“tree” 
In the Colorado Valley, where Doctor Grinnell found the Cooper, 
he says it was “difficult to discern in spite of its brilliant red attire, 
amid the vivid green of the new foliage of the willow thicket in which 
it ensconced itself ... it attracted attention through its typical 
Tanager call note, l pritiV . . . the song was quite different, 
being a clear, full-toned warble more nearly like that of the Black¬ 
headed Grosbeak, yet with an individuality of its own” (1914, pp. 
182-183). 
FINCHES, SPARROWS, BUNTINGS, etc.: Family Fringillidae 
The Finches and Sparrows being primarily seed eaters—weed 
seed making up the bulk of the food of adult native members of the 
group, though insects are fed to the young—their bills, as Doctor 
Coues says, approach nearest to the cone, “combining strength to crush 
seeds with delicacy of touch to secure minute objects” (Key). Although 
some of the family show a wide variation from the pure cone form, 
their conformity to the type will be appreciated by comparison with the 
flat, widely gaping bills of the Swallows, Swifts, and Goatsuckers, the 
long tubular bills of the Hummingbirds, and other marked forms 
adapted to other feeding habits. Most of the Fringillidae have a bill 
character seen also in Icteridae, the cutting edge of the lower mandible 
near the base being abruptly bent down at an angle, so hinging the 
bill wider open for grasping large seeds or nuts. The nostrils are 
mostly exposed. The wing is characterized by having only nine 
developed quills. Being seed eaters, the Finches and Sparrows are 
not so migratory as the exclusively insectivorous birds, which have to 
leave the north at the coming of cold weather. The coloration of 
different members of the family varies with their habitat, the neutral 
tints of the brown, streaked Sparrows making them inconspicuous in 
the open, while the bright colors of many of the Finches are lost in 
the tree tops. As a family they are good singers. 
References.—Chapman, F. M., Notes on the Plumage of North American 
Sparrows, Bird-Lore, XII-XVII (1910-1915).— Judd, S. D., The Relation of 
Sparrows to Agriculture, Biol. Surv., U. S. Dept. Agr., Bull. 15, 1901. 
GROSBEAKS, etc.: Subfamily Richmondeninae 
ARIZONA CARDINAL: Richmondena cardinalis superbus (Ridgway) 
Description. — Male: Length (skins) 8.4-9 inches, wing 3.9-4.1, tail 4.7-5, 
bill .8-9. Female: Length (skins) 7.8-8.3 inches, wing 3.8-4, tail 4.5-4.7, bill .8. 
