Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/138

Rh upon the whole, formed rather for perching than for walking, though many genera walk on the ground habitually.

Seeds and grain of various kinds may be mentioned as the principal food of the "hard billed"

birds; and for the opening of the different capsules and seed vessels, as well as for the crushing of the often hard seeds themselves, their stout and horny beaks are peculiarly fitted. At the same time not a few add insects to a vegetable diet, and some may be said to be almost omnivorous. In proportion as the form of the beak deviates from that of a short and broad cone, does the appetite vary from an exclusive seed-diet. So very extensive a tribe we should expect to find represented in all countries of the globe, and so it is. Yet perhaps we may consider it as affecting rather the temperate and colder than the warmer regions of the earth, particularly the very