BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 659 



Genus SALTATOR Vieillot. 



jS'aZtotor ViEiLLOT, Analyse, 1816, 32. (Type, ^' Grand Tangara, Buff . , " = TaJiagrra 

 magna Gmelin. ) 



Large, plainly colored Fringillidte, with tail nearl}- if not quite as 

 long as wing, rounded; tarsus not conspicuously if at all longer than 

 middle toe with claw; bill rather large, usually elongate-conical, with 

 tip of maxilla more or less distinctly decurved and produced into a 

 distinct hook or point with distinct tomial notch behind it; maxillary 

 tomium not distinctly sinuate or lobed, and subbasal portion of man- 

 diVjular tomium not angulated nor toothed; upper parts plain olive- 

 green, brown, or brownish gray (pileum sometimes black); under parts 

 plain grayish, passing into fulvous posteriorly, the throat white or 

 pale fulvous, or else under parts streaked with olive. 



Bill elongate-conical, with maxilla rather strongly decurved termi- 

 nally, its tip forming a distinct point or H/if/>/l.^, with distinct tomial 

 notch innnediately Ijehind; basal depth of bill less than distance from 

 nostril to tip of maxilla, decidedly greater than basal width; culmen 

 moderately convex, more strongly so terminally; gonys straight or 

 very slightly convex, its length less than basal depth of ])ill; maxil- 

 lary tomium not distinctly sinuated nor lobed, its basal portion not 

 a])ruptly nor ver}' strongly deflexed; mandibular tomium nearly 

 straight for most of its length, the sul)basal portion not angulated nor 

 toothed,' but gradually rounded to the rictus, the terminal portion 

 more or less beveled off to the point of the mandible. Nostril 

 exposed, small, roundish, in anterior portion of nasal fossie, overhung 

 b}^ rather distinct memljrane; nasal fossse feathered to posterior edge 

 of nostrils. Rictal bristles oT)vious but rather small. Wing moderate, 

 rounded, the tip much shorter than tarsus; seventh to lifth primaries 

 longest, the outermost (ninth) shorter than third, usually shorter than 

 second. Tail nearl}^ if not (piite as long as wing, rounded. Tarsus 

 rather stout, longer than connnissurc, less than to a little more than 

 one-fourth as long as wing, its scutella distinct; middle toe, with 

 claw, about as long as tarsus, or slightly shorter; lateral toes, with 

 claws, reaching about to base of middle claw; hallux about as long as 

 lateral toes but much stouter, its claw much shorter than the digit. 



Coloration. — Above plain olive-green, olive, or brownish gray, the 

 pileum sometimes black; beneath plain grayish or buffy grayish, 

 passing into fulvous posteriorly, the throat more or less extensively 

 white or white and fulvous; a white superciliarj'^ stripe (yellow in 

 young); sometimes a black ""collar" across chest. 



1 Except in some South American species which, though usually referred to this 

 genus, are probably generically distinct (for example, S. awran^i/ros^ri.s Vieillot, 8. atri- 

 coUis Vieillot, and ;S'. latidavius Sclater and Salvin). These have typically fringilline 

 bills, the commissure being abruptly deflexed basally and the subbasal portion of 

 the mandibular tomium distinctly angulated. 



