Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/198

 190 FINBACK property may be witnessed upon a large scale in passing in a steamboat along the north shore of Lake Erie, where the water, particularly after a storm, carries the sediment from the clayey banks miles out into the lake, and re- ceives from it a milky appearance. FINBACK. See KOKQUAL. FINCH, a name given to many birds of the order insessores, suborder oscines, tribe coniros- tres, and family fringillidce, including a numer- ous series of small and generally brilliant birds, with short, thick, more or less conical bill, without emargination at the tip. This family, according to Gray, comprises the subfamilies ploceince, or weavers, African for the most part, except the typical genus ploceus (Cuv.), which is Asiatic; coccothraustin.ee, or haw- finches, well scattered over the globe, of which the rose-breasted grosbeak is a familiar repre- sentative in the United States ; tanagrince, or tanagers, peculiar to this continent, especially to South America ; fringillince, or finches, found all over the world ; emberizince, or bunt- ings, of which the common snow bunting is a good example; alaudince, or larks, of which the shore lark of the north and a second spe- cies on the Pacific coast are the only Amer- ican specimens : this subfamily is by some, and with good reason, removed from the fringilli- dce ; pyrrhulina, or bullfinches; loxince, or crossbills; and phytotomince, of plant-cutters. The characters of the bullfinch, bunting, and crossbill have been given under those titles re- spectively ; those of the grosbeaks, hawfinches, larks, plant-cutters, tanagers, and weavers, will be noticed in their alphabetical order; leaving nothing for this article but the proper finches. The characters of the fringillince are, in addition to those already alluded to as be- longing to the whole family, wings more or less lengthened and pointed; tail varying in length, sometimes with the feathers acumi- nated; tarsi rather shorter than the middle toe, in a few cases as long, slender and trans- versely scaled ; toes long and slender, the hind toe moderate, with the claws curved and acute. The genus estrelda (Swains.) is found in Africa, Asia, and Australia, occurring in small flocks in meadows and bushy grounds, and occasion- ally visiting gardens. The wax-billed finch, or bengaly (E. astrild, Linn.), is of the size of a wren, about 4 in. long; the bill is deep red, and a streak through the eye and the middle of the breast are of the same color ; the gene- ral color above is brown, and below reddish gray, everywhere crossed with fine blackish undulations. This handsome bird inhabits Af- rica from Senegal to the Cape of Good Hope ; it often commits considerable havoc in gar- dens, where it devours both buds and seeds ; it is frequently kept in cages, more for its beanty than its song. The wings in this genus are short, and the flight is consequently for small distances at a time; the tail is lengthened. There are more than 40 other species. As a specimen of the genus amadina (Swains.), dif- FINCH fering from the last chiefly in a more uniformly conical bill and in a short and rounded tail, may be mentioned the Java finch, commonly called here Java sparrow (A. oryzivora, Linn.) ; other names are the padda and rice bird. This is of the size of a sparrow, in length about 5 in. ; the bill is stout and red ; the eyelids are of the same color ; the head and throat black ; the sides of the head, under the eyes, white ; the upper parts pale ash; belly and thighs pale rose, white toward the vent; the tail black. It inhabits Java, China, and India, where it occasionally does much mischief in the rice grounds ; it eats seeds and insects ; it is often seen here as a cage bird, and is a fa- vorite for its beauty. There are more than 50 other species of the genus. The typical finches are found in the genus fringilla (Linn.), which is distributed over all the world, living in flocks in which are often associated several species ; their food consists of seeds of various kinds of plants and trees in winter, and of lar- va, grubs, and grain in summer; some, like the red poll and the snow bird, are found in very cold regions. There are more than 80 species, which by Gray were brought under the Linnsean genus fringilla ; some of the old subdivisions have been readopted in Prince Bonaparte's Conspectus Amum, and in Baird's catalogue of North American birds, but the simpler method of Gray will be adhered to in this article. In the genus fringilla the wings are long and pointed, and the tail is general- ly slightly forked. The chaffinch (F. ccelels, Linn.) has been described under that title, and the siskin (F. spinus, Linn.) under ABEEDE- .VINE; the goldfinch (F. carduelis, Linn.), the redpoll linnet (F. linaria, Linn.), the snow bird (F. [junco] hyemalis, Linn.), and the yellow bird or American goldfinch (F. [chrysomitris] tristis, Linn.), will be noticed under their respec- tive names. The brambling or mountain finch (F. montifringilla, Linn.) is a little smaller than the chaffinch, being about 6J in. long, with an extent of wings of 10 in. ; it resembles this bird in its form, mode of flight, gait, and man- ners; the bill is larger in proportion. The greater part of the upper mandible and the end of the lower are dusky, the base of the former pale gray, and the rest of the latter yellow ; the head and back in the male are deep black, the feathers with a tinge of rusty gray; the throat, breast, and upper wing coverts are light reddish brown; the rump white tinged with yellow ; the quills and larger coverts black, the former margined with yellow ex- ternally, the inner with a reddish margin and a white spot at the base; the sides spotted with black; the tail black; the exterior feather white on the outer web, and the mid- dle ones edged and tipped with ash color; abdomen and lower tail coverts yellowish white. The female is much less bright; the sides of the head and the back of the neck are gray, the top of the head and back being dusky margined with gray ; the rufous mark-