FRINGILLA

(Lat. fringilla, a chaffinch.) A Linnaean genus of Pa erine birds, characterised by a broad based, sharp-pointed, strong, conical bill: now raised to the rank of a family, Fringillidce,• including the buntings (Embcriza); the cro -bills (Loxia); the grosbeaks ( Coccothraustes) \ the linnets (Linaria); canary-birds (Canaria); finches {Carduclis); and many exotic subgenera of seed and grain-eating Conirostral birds. FRITH, or FIRTH (Lat. fretum, a narrow sea), is a term chiefly applied to a narrow and deep inlet of the sea upon a river, as the Frith of Forth in Scotland. This term corresponds to the fiord of the Danes and Norwegians, who, in all probability, borrowed it from the. English. Both Latin and Teutonic are derived not improbably from the same root, fahren, to pa over; whence ferry, ford, furt (Germ.), as in Frankfurt, Erfurt, . [s. 490]