PITYLUS. 331 
proposed for birds found within the area indicated above. We also believe that the 
island birds S. martinicensis and S. guadalupensis will probably be found inseparable 
from S. albicollis when a good series of specimens are compared. Mr. Sclater has 
already expressed his inability to distinguish between S. martinicensis and S. guada- 
lupensis 8, 
Though we place all the continental birds under the name S. albicollis, there is a 
certain amount of variation observable in different individuals. The colour of the bill 
has been used as a differential character, but this most certainly is only an individual 
one. The amount of striation on the chest is another variable character; but this, 
too, is not localized, though Colombian specimens have perhaps less than those from 
Panama. 
Salmon obtained the eggs of this species in the Colombian State of Antioquia; these 
he describes as pale greenish blue, with a zone of fine black lines round the larger end’. 
This description agrees well with that given by Grayson of the eggs of Saltator 
plumbeiceps. 
PITYLUS. 
Pitylus, Cuv. Régne An. i. p. 413 (1829) ; Sclater, P. Z.S. 1856, p. 64. 
Pitylus is another Neotropical genus, containing nine species, three of which are 
found within our limits, two being peculiar, and one (P. grossus) having an extensive 
range over the northern parts of South America. 
Of the peculiar species, P. celeno of Mexico has no near ally, but perhaps comes 
near to P. erythromilas of Guiana. P. poliogaster represents the Guianan and Brazilian 
P. viridis and P. brasiliensis, but has perhaps a nearer ally in P. humeralis of Colombia 
and Ecuador. 
In Pitylus we have the extreme Fringilline development of the bill in the Tanagride, 
as in size it almost equals that of some members of Coccothraustes. It is short, high, 
with a strongly arched culmen; the commissure is prominently sinuated in the middle, 
the subterminal notch being also well developed. The wings are short; the tail 
moderate, rounded in P. grossus, nearly square in P. poliogaster; the tarsi are short, 
the birds being strictly arboreal. 
1. Pitylus grossus. 
Loxia grossa, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 307°. 
Pitylus grossus, Cab. in Schomb. Reise n. Guiana, ili. p. 677°; Scl. P. ZS. 1856, p. 64°; 1857, 
p- 264°; 1860, p. 293°; Cassin, Pr. Ac. Phil. 1860, p. 140°; 1865, p. 170"; Lawr. Ann. 
Lyc. N. Y. vii. p. 298°; ix. p. 102°; Scl. & Salv. P. Z.S. 1864, p. 352; 1878, p. 185”; 
1879, p.505 ”; Salv. P. Z. S. 1867, p. 141”; Ibis, 1872, p. 317; Pelz. Orn. Bras. p. 220”; 
Tacz. P. Z. 8. 1874, p. 518%. 
42% 
