Mr. P. L. Sclater on new species of Tanagers. 141 



feed on ripe fruit, some on insects, and perhaps in habits rather 

 resemble Sylviadce than true FringillidcE. 



With these views, I keep among the Tanagers the Pityli and 

 Saltatores, excluded therefrom by certain modern systematists, and 

 retained among the Fringillidce^ while the whole of what may be 

 termed the more typical portion of the group is removed far away to 

 the neighbourhood of the SylvicolineE, 



Now I think it will be impossible to settle these, and other families 

 belonging to the South American Fauna, in a really satisfactory way, 

 until we know much more than we do at present of the habits and 

 customs of the animals of that vast continent. Unfortunately those 

 who have hitherto written upon the ornithology of that country have 

 in general had too little previous scientific knowledge of the subject. 

 Not, of course, that this makes them less accurate observers of facts, 

 but only less likely to hit upon the right facts to be observed. A per- 

 son previously well acquainted with the varied forms of South Ameri- 

 can ornithology by study of the European collections, so as to know 

 what points required looking up, would, 1 have little doubt, be in a 

 much more favourable condition for observing these animals in their 

 native haunts, and thereby solving many of those doubts which at 

 present so perplex the student of natural history. As, however, we 

 may perhaps have to wait some time before a determination of the 

 question "What is a Tanager?" can be arrived at in this manner, 

 I propose adopting as provisional limits for the family or subfamily, 

 nearly those given by Mr. G. R. Gray in his * Genera of Birds,' ex- 

 cluding only the genera Pipilo^ Embernagra, and EmberizoideSy which 

 appear to me to go better with Zonotrichia and its allied forms. To 

 show the arrangement I contemplate, I have formed a list* of the 

 genera and species, which may perhaps be useful for collectors to 

 mark off their duplicates or desiderata ; though, as a mere catalogue 

 of names, it is, of course, of no scientific value. Some of the many 

 lately-formed genera now used, I may hereafter find occasion to con- 

 solidate, the principle of subdivision having been carried to great 

 lengths in this as in other families. 



My present list contains the names of 222 species, though I have 

 no doubt that many more remain to be discovered. These are all 

 believed to be real, not nominal species ; indeed I have myself seen 

 specimens of nearly the whole of them, and the ten or twelve I have 

 not personally examined I believe rest on good authority. The 

 names used are many of them taken from Bonaparte's * Conspectus,* 

 his ** Note sur les Tanagras" in the ' Rev. et Mag. de Zool.' for 1851, 

 the * Museum Heineanum' of Cabanis, and my own papers in Sir 

 William Jardine's ' Contributions.' 



The Tanagers are essentially a South American family. Out of 

 the whole 222 species, 193 are from the continent south of the Isth- 

 mus of Panama, and the rest mostly either from Central America or 

 Southern Mexico. Three or four only are peculiar to certain of the 

 West Indian islands, and three only, well-known members of the 

 genus Pyrayiga, extend as summer migrants into the United States of 



* Tanagrarum Catalogus Specificus. Auctore Philippi Lutley Sclater. Basing^ 

 stoke, 1854. 8vo. 16 pp. 



