24 Mr. P. L. Sclater on a new species o/Tanager. 



united around the mouth by a nervous ring, form the larger por- 

 tion of the nervous system, and inasmuch as they become more 

 slender towards both ends of the ambulacrum and far surpass 

 the nervous ring of tl^e oral aperture in diameter, these ambu- 

 lacral nervous trunks might be regarded as ambulacral cerebra, 

 whose unity of action is provided for by the nervous ring. It is 

 this ring which is cut through in the Synapta, when we divide 

 the head longitudinally upon one side, and so deprive them of 

 the power of breaking themselves up. 



[To be continued.] 



II. — On a new species o/Tanager in the British Museum. 

 t> bl' ' ^y Philip Lutley Sclater, M.A. 



Through the kindness of Mr. G. R. Gray I have had an oppor- 

 tunity of examining an apparently new species of Tanager lately 

 acquired by the British Museum. It is nearly allied to the 

 Saltator rubicus of Vieillot, which is the type of the genus Phce- 

 nicothraupis, Cabanis. But I agree with Dr. Cabanis that the 

 proper place of this bird is nearer Pyranga and Tachyphonus than 

 Saltator, with which it is often classed, and I think we may with 

 propriety adopt the new generic name Dr. Cabanis has coined 

 for it, and station it intermediately to the two former genera. 

 My new bird will be the third of the genus, if we admit the 

 claims of the Mexican variety named rubicoides by De la Fresnaye 

 to be a true species. A specimen of this latter bird from Gua- 

 timala in my collection differs little in size from the southern 

 race, although varying slightly in the conformation of the bill 

 and rosy tint of the under plumage, as that accurate naturalist 

 has remarked. 



I possess a second local variety of this species from the island 

 of Trinidad. It is smaller, and has the throat, belly and crissum 

 of a rosy tint like the rubicoides ; but I should be unwilling to 

 separate it specifically without seeing more specimens. 



The three species of the genus Phcenicothraupis will therefore 

 stand as follows : — 



Sp. I. Phcenicothraupis rubica (V.). 



Saltator rubicus, Vieill. Nov. Diet. xiv. 107. 

 Tanagra flammiceps, Temm. PI. Col. 177. 



porphyrio, Licht. Verz. d. Doubl. p. 31. 



Pyranga rubica, D^Orb. Voy. p. 265. 

 Phcenicothraupis rubica, Cab. M. ll. p. 24. 



Hab. in Brazilia (Max.), Bolivia (D'Orb.), Paraguaya (Azara). 



