Finches are seed-eating birds characterised by a stout bill, which is used for husking grain.
The common sparrow (Passer domesticus) is the best known member of the finch family. Most of us see too much of him. He is to be observed in every garden on the Nilgiris, looking as though the particular garden in which he happens to be belongs to him. As a rule, sparrows nest about houses, but numbers of them breed in the steep cuttings on the road between Coonoor and Ootacamund.
The only other finch common on the Nilgiris is the rose-finch (Carpodacus erythrinus). This, however, is only a winter visitor: it departs from the Nilgiris in April and does not return until the summer season is over.
THE HIRUNDINIDÆ OR SWALLOW FAMILY
This family includes the swallows and the martins.
The swallows commonly found on the Nilgiris in summer are the Nilgiri house-swallow (Hirundo javanica) and the red-rumped or mosque swallow (H. erythropygia). I regret to have to state that Oates has saddled the latter with the name "Sykes's striated swallow"; he was apparently seduced by the sibilant alliteration!
Those two swallows are easily distinguished. The latter is the larger bird; its upper parts are glossy steel-blue, except the rump, which is of chestnut hue. The house-swallow has the rump glossy black, but it displays a good deal of red about the head and neck.
In the cold weather the European swallow and two species of martin visit the Nilgiris.
THE MOTACILLIDÆ OR WAGTAIL FAMILY