19 



Habitat. Colombia, Venezuela, and Trinidad. 



Male. Bright vermilion red, clearer on the head, crest, rump, and under parts ; mantle, 

 scapulars, and lower back rosy brick-red ; wings and coverts pale brown, more or less 

 edged with rosy brick-red ; tail brick-red, tinged with bright vermilion on the outer 

 webs ; frontal band extremely nan-ow, not uniting on the culmen, and chin black ; 

 axillaries, under surface of wings, and coverts vermilion, tinged with pink; "iris 

 reddish-brown " {Goeriny) ; bill whitish horn at the base, brown on the culmen and tip : 

 length 6-45, wing 3-2, tail 3-3, tars. 0-8.5, culm. 0-65. 



Female. Above ashy-brown, tinged with rufous on the rump ; narrow frontal band 

 whitish, intermixed with blackish bristles ; crest-feathers dull vermilion ; wing-coverts 

 and secondaries like the back, faintly tinged with brick red ; primaries dull brown, outer 

 webs brick-red ; tail dull brick-red, with dusky edges ; moustachial line and chin 

 blackish ; throat and abdomen ashy-white ; breast, sides, and flanks dull rufous-brown ; 

 axillaries, under wing-coverts, edges of inner webs rosy-red ; bill darker than in the 

 male. 



Young. Similar to the female, but rather more ashy on the mantle and scapulars. 



Observ. The brilliant colour of the male is gradually assumed in patches, variously and 

 unequally distributed over the body. 



The first notice of a species of Cardinal corresponding to the present 

 bird, which I have been able to discover, is Fringilla cardinalls (n. Lox. 

 card. Lin. Cayana), in a supplementary list of birds added by Dr. H. 

 Lichtenstein to his ' Verzeichniss der Doubletten des Zoologischen 

 Museums, Berlin,' p. 89 (1823), which I presume refers to this Venezuelan 

 Cardinal, although I am unable to find any reference to its having been 

 brought from Cayenne ; but Lichtenstein's examples were possibly con- 

 veyed from Venezuela, and accidentally mixed with a collection of Cayenne 

 skins. 



I transcribe the following remarks respecting this species fi-om Messrs. 

 Sclater and Salvin's ' Exotic Ornithology,' published in 1868. They say : 

 " The A^enezuelan Cardinal is a beautiful representative of the well-known 

 northern species, the ' Eed Bird ' or ' Virginian Cardinal, of the United 

 States. It is of nearly the same form, but is readily distinguished by its 

 smaller size, longer crest, and the absence of the black band on the 

 forehead. 



" This bird was first described by the late Prince Bonaparte in a paper 

 published in the ' Zoological Society's Proceedings' for 1837, under the 



