HEDYMELES.—CARDINALIS. 339 
Territory. Its habits are described as resembling those of its congener, H. ludovicianus ; 
it is also said to have a song, of which many writers speak in high praise, of similar 
quality. The eggs of this species are of a bluish-green ground, blotched and splashed 
with markings of a rusty brown, more numerous at the larger end. The nest consists of 
a few sticks and weeds loosely put together and lined with grass and roots". 
The most southern record we have of H. melanocephalus is Oaxaca’. Our specimen 
from there is a male of the typical form. 
Of the synonyms of this species Fringilla canthomaschalis, Wagler 1, is simply a sub- 
stitute for Swainson’s older title. F. epopea, Lichtenstein !°, was proposed apparently 
in ignorance of the bird being already described. Pitylus guttatus, Lesson 1’, is in the 
same category and is based on a male in Abeille’s collection. 
CARDINALIS. 
Cardinalis, Bonaparte, Saggio di una Distr. Met. An. Vert. p. 53 (1831) ; Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. 
N. Am. B. ii. p. 98. 
The bright-red plumage of the males of the species of this genus renders it easily recog- 
nized, in addition to which the form of the wings, tail, &c. all points to its complete 
isolation, except from the next genus, which has peculiarities of its own. Cardinalis 
contains two well-defined species, C. virginianus and C. pheniceus, the latter coming trom 
Venezuela, and not found within our borders. C. virginianus, again, has been subdivided 
into several races, two of which we, somewhat reluctantly, here admit under separate 
headings, at least until their status is more definitely fixed. Of these races one seems to 
be the true C. virginianus of the Eastern States, visiting Eastern Mexico in its winter 
migration. In Western Mexico we find two forms, one apparently the same as that 
found in Lower California and other parts of the western territory. This has been called 
by Prof. Baird C. igneus. Whether the birds found at Mazatlan belong to this race is 
not absolutely certain; and there seems to be a still further divergence in the bird of 
the Tres Marias Islands, especially in the development of its bill. At Acapulco and 
its immediate neighbourhood another race is found, distinguishable with much more 
certainty by its pure red back and long stiff crest. This was long ago described by 
Lesson as C. carneus. 
C. pheniceus of Venezuela, though similarly coloured to C. virginianus, can at once 
be distinguished by its bill being dark slate-colour instead of red, and by the restriction 
of the black of the throat. This bird was described as coming from countries south of 
the Bay of Honduras, but it has no place in our fauna. 
The bill in Cardinalis virginianus is large, the culmen but slightly curved, and the 
commissure sinuated. The mandible is about the same height as the maxilla, but 
broader. The tarsi are moderately long, longer than the middle toe, which with the rest 
of the toes is short; the claws are slender and curved. The wing is rounded, the third, 
fourth, fifth, and sixth quills being the longest, the first being about equal to the 
43* 
