220 AMPELIDZ. 
characters of this species, besides which the bill is more feeble and less depressed 
than in Ptilogonys, the rictal bristles being much longer. The wings have a large, 
broad spurious primary, the second and third being broad and rounded at their tips, 
the fifth the longest in the wing, slightly exceeding the fourth and sixth. The frontal 
feathers, though not covering the nostrils, have a few long bristles which reach over 
three fourths the length of the culmen. The tail is long and slightly rounded; the 
tarsi short as in Péilogonys and Ampelis. 
This is a monotypic genus, its sole member, Phainopepla nitens, having a rather 
wide range from the northern confines of Southern Mexico to the south-western and 
south-middle States of the Union. 
1. Phainopepla nitens. 
Ptilogonys nitens, Sw. An. in Menag. p. 285°; Bp. Consp. i. p. 335°; Cass. Ill. B. Cal. & Tex. 
p. 169, t. 29°. 
Phainopepla nitens, Scl. P.Z.S. 1858, p. 543*; 1864, p. 173°; Baird, U.S. Bound. Surv. ii., Birds, 
p- 11°; Dresser, Ibis, 1865, p. 4807; Dugés, La Nat. i. p. 141°. 
Phenopepla nitens, Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. p. 416°; Sumichrast, Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. i. p. 548°; 
Baird, Brew. & Ridgw. N. Am. B. i. p. 4057*; Coues, B. Col. Vall. 1. p. 475 , 
Lepturus galeatus, Less. (1838) fide Bonaparte *’. 
Ptilogonys aterrima, Licht. Mus. Ber.“ 
Nitens chalybeo-nigra unicolor, alarum remigibus pogonio interno medialiter albis, crista elongata corpore 
concolori. Long. tota 8°0, ale 4:0, caude 4:2, rostri a rictu 0-7, tarsi 0°7. (Descr. maris ex urbis Mexico 
vicinitate. Mus. nostr.) 
Femina fusca, supra paulo saturatior, capite sicut in mare cristata, alis et cauda nigricanti-fuscis, illis et crisso 
albo undique marginatis. (Descr. femine ex urbis Mexico vicinitate. Mus. nostr.) 
Hab. Norta America, Southern, Middle, and Western States 12, Arizona &c.°, Texas’. 
—Mexico !?, Coahuila (Couch ®), Guanajuato (Dugés§), plateau of Mexico, valley 
of Orizaba and State of Puebla (Sumichrast '°), valley of Mexico (White ®), Sierras 
of Mexico (le Strange), Cimapan (Deppe \*), Mirador (Sartorius °). 
Swainson first described this species, in 1837, from male and female specimens 
obtained in Mexico, where it has since been found throughout the central and 
northern portions of that country, and thence across the frontier into Texas, New 
Mexico, Arizona, Lower and Southern California, and Southern Nevada. It does 
not, however, seem to be found much to the southward of the city of Mexico; for it 
was not included in the collections of either M. Sallé or of M. Boucard. It appears to 
be absent, too, from the western coast. Prof. Sumichrast says it is well distributed 
throughout the plateau of Mexico, and, so far as he knows, but rarely reaches the 
valley of Orizaba at an elevation of about 5000 feet !°. He adds that it is very common 
at Tehuantepec, a village near the city of Mexico. 
In the United States the habits of P. nitens have been watched by several excellent 
