Color Key to North American Birds Part 7

[Ill.u.s.tration: EVENING GROSBEAK.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CARDINAL.]

Family 53. FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. Fringillidae.

Bill short, stout, conical; third or fourth primaries longest; first about half an inch shorter; the majority are small birds and but few are over eight inches in length.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SUMMER TANAGER.]

Family 54. TANAGERS. Tanagridae.

Bill somewhat finch-like but more swollen in outline; the upper mandible, in typical forms, toothed or dentate.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TREE SWALLOW.]

Family 55. SWALLOWS. Hirundinidae.

Bill short, broad and flat; feet small and weak; wings long and narrow; tail notched and sometimes forked; birds of the air, feeding while on the wing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CEDAR WAXWING.]

Family 56. WAXWINGS. Ampelidae.

Bill short, stout, and rounded, its tip notched; wings rather long; head crested.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NORTHERN SHRIKE.]

Family 57. SHRIKES. Laniidae.

Bill stout, its mandible hooked and hawk-like; feet truly Pa.s.serine; pose, in perching, erect; solitary grayish birds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RED-EYED VIREO.]

Family 58. VIREOS. Vireonidae.

Bill small, but distinctly hooked; outer primary usually very small and sometimes apparently wanting; olive-green gleaners among the leaves.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NASHVILLE WARBLER.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: YELLOW WARBLER.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: AMERICAN REDSTART.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHAT.]

Family 60. WARBLERS. Mniotiltidae.

Bill, in most of the species, slender, sharply pointed, and without a notch or hook at the tip; in the genera _Wilsonia_ and _Setophaga_, flat and flycatcher-like; in _Icteria_ stout; back of tarsus compressed into a thin ridge; three outer primaries of nearly equal length.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AMERICAN PIPIT.]

Family 61. WAGTAILS. Motacillidae.

Hind toe-nail much lengthened; bill slender, nostril not covered with bristles, as in true Larks; back of tarsus thin, not rounded; terrestrial, walking with a wagging motion of the tail.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AMERICAN DIPPER.]

Family 62. DIPPERS. Cinclidae.

Thick-set birds with short wings and tail; plumage thick and water-proof; tarsus scaled; semi-aquatic in habit, haunting mountain streams.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BROWN THRASHER.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOUSE WREN.]

Family 63. WRENS, THRASHERS, ETC. Troglodytidae.

Tarsus scaled; tail rounded, the outer feathers being shortest; third to fourth primary longest, the outer half as long; bill in Thrashers often decurved, its base with bristles; In Wrens, bill without bristles; brown or grayish inhabitants of lower growth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BROWN CREEPER.]

Family 64. CREEPERS. Certhiidae.

Bill slender and much decurved; tail usually pointed and stiffened.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHICKADEE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH.]

Family 65. NUTHATCHES AND t.i.tS. Paridae.

Fourth or fifth primary longest; first an inch or less in length.

Chickadees (subfamily _Parinae_) have a short, stout bill, the nostrils covered with bristles; the tail is rather long and rounded. Nuthatches (subfamily _Sittinae_) have a long, slender bill, short, square tail, and large feet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET.]

Family 66. KINGLETS, GNATCATCHERS, ETC. Sylviidae.