CCEBEBID^ : HONEY CREEPERS. TANAGRIB^ : TANAGERS. 317 



10. Family CCEREBID^E : Honey Creepers. 



Primaries 9, and other external characters very nearly as in the last family : but the bill is 

 generally slenderer and sharper, and often a little decurved. The line between the two fami- 

 lies has never been drawn with precision, and has become more difficult of expression since 

 some of the Si/lvicolidce have proven possessed of a peculiarity of the Ccet-ehidce : deeply bifid, 

 pcuiciUate tongue. As commonly understood, it is a small group containing perhaps 40 species 

 of pretty little birds, of the genera Certhiola, Diglossa, and Coereba, confined to tropical and 

 subtropical America, being especially numerous in the West ladies. Our species is merely a 

 stray visitor to Florida. 



47. CERTHI'OLA. (Diminutive of Lat. certhia, a creeper. Fig. 177.) Honey Creepers. 

 Bill little shorter than head, stout at base, but rapidly tapering to the extremely acute tip ; 

 whole biU much curved, culmen very convex, outline of under mandible continuously concave 

 from base to tip. Rictus unbristled. Wings long, exceeding the short rounded tail. Tarsus 

 longer than middle toe without claw. Contains about 15 species or varieties, mostly West 

 Indian. 



153. C. bahamen'sis. (Of the Bahamas.) Bahaman Honey Creeper. Dark brown above ; 

 long superciliary line and under parts dull white ; breast, edge of wing, and rump, bright 

 yeUow ; wings dusky, with a white spot at base of primaries, and whitish edging of the quUls ; 

 taO. dusky, tipped with white ; bill and feet black ; eyes blue. Length 4.50 ; wing 2.33 ; tail 

 1.75. Florida; Bahamas; closely related to the Stock species, C. 



11. Family TANAGRID-^ : Tanagers. 



An extensive, brUliant family, confined to Arherica, 

 abounding in species between the tropics. Its position 

 is a point at issue with ornithologists ; it may naturally 

 follow the Ccerebidce and Sylvicolidce, though certainly 

 no families should stand between it and Fringillidce. 

 In fact, certain tropical forms might be assigned to 

 either indifferently. The best definition of the Tana- 

 FiG. 178. — Dentirostral bill of a Tana- gers is that given by the distinguished ornithologist 

 seriPyranoa Uepatica), nat. size. ^^o called them ''dentirostral finches ; " but this gen- 



eraUzation, like other happy epigrams, is insusceptible of application in detail, and the Tana- 

 gers remain to be precisely characterized. As a consequence, the number of species can 

 hardly be approximately estimated ; but upwards of 300 are usually enumerated. 



The single well-estabhshed North American genus may be recognized, among all the 

 birds of our country, by the combination of nine primaries and scutellate tarsi with a turgid 

 bill, notched at the tip and toothed or lobed near the middle of the maxillary toraia (fig. 178) ; 

 though this last character is sometimes so obscure that it might be looked at without being 

 seen. The species of Pyranga are birds of brilliant colors, w^th great seasonal and sexual 

 differences of plumage. They are frugivorous and insectivorous, and consequently migratory 

 in the United States. They inhabit woodland, lay 4-5 dark-colored, speckled eggs, nest in 

 trees, and are no great songsters. In distribution they are rather southerly, scarcely passing 

 northward beyond the U. S. Oiae species of another genus, Eiiplionia elegantissima, admitted 

 to our fauna upon insufficient evidence, doubtless occurs over the Mexican border. 

 48. PYRAN'GA. (Barbarous name of some South American bird.) Summer Tanagers. Bill 

 stout, turgid, conoidal, usually notched at tip, and with one or more denticulations of the cut- 

 ting edge of upper mandible near middle of commissure. Rictal bristles well-developed. Nos- 

 trils basal, the frontal antiae reaching them. Wings lengthened and pointed ; first 4 feathers 



