Genus Tachypkonus, 61 



mensurate with the care and expense employed to render them 

 worthy of their immediate patrons. If this be well understood, I 

 see no reason why we should withhold the contribution of our mite 

 towards the general stock of knowledge, under the apprehension 

 of doing that imperfectly, which others may have previously done 

 well ; and with the possibility that, after all, the materials for 

 such a contribution may rest alone with ourselves. 



I am unprepared to offer any detailed remarks on the situation 

 whicli Tachypkonus may be supposed to occupy among the Tanagrce. 

 By its strong, conic, and somewhat lengthened bill, and by the 

 sinuosity of the margin of the upper mandible, this group seems 

 to have a close affinity with Pyranga. Some species * in which 

 the bill is much shorter and proportionably thicker, might, at first 

 sight, be mistaken for Fringillce ; while in others t, the fonn of 

 this organ is considerably modified, and resembles that of Tanagra 

 velia> and its allies. But the typical species J are more particu- 

 larly distinguished by the elevated base of the bill, which is car- 

 ried on towards the crown, and divides the frontal feathers. This 

 character, so much developed among the Icteri of the new world, 

 and, in a less degree, among the African weavers, probably in- 

 duced the writers of the last century to associate the type of this 

 group with the Linnaean Orioles. 



We have little or no information respecting the manners or 

 economy of these birds ; judging from the hardness and general 

 strength of the bill, the margins of which are frequently infleaed, 

 we may suppose that they feed principally upon seeds ; but, in 

 some species §, the base of this organ is widened, and the bristles 

 of the rictus are sufficiently lengthened to indicate a partially in- 

 sectivorous disposition. 



The colour of the plumage is frequently an obvious, though not 

 an essential, character in natural groups. In Tachypkonus it is 

 usually black, or of one uniform tint on the upper parts, unbroken 

 by spots, and unrelieved by those beautiful colours which so orna- 

 ment many of the Linnaean Tanagers. Nevertheless the head 



* Tachypkonus itibescens. T. fringilloides. t 71 Desmaresti. T. tenuirostris. 

 % T. nigerrimus. T, olivaceus. T. Vigorsi. § T. Suchi. T, cristatut. ? 



