464 Mr. P. L. Sclater un the Species of Chlorochrysa. 



XLII. — Remarks on the Species of the Tanagrine Genus Chlo- 

 rochrysa. By P. L. ScLATEK, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S. 



(Plate X.) 



The beautiful Tanagers of the genus Chlorochrysa are associ- 

 ated with some of my earliest ornithological experiences. In 

 the latter part of the year 1850, Mr. Edward Wilson, who 

 was at that time purchasing birds in large numbers for pre- 

 sentation by his brother, Mr. Thomas B. Wilson, to the 

 Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 

 placed in my hands examples of two species of this form. 

 One of these I quickly recognized as the Callospiza calUparia 

 of Tsehudi ; the other I was preparing to describe as new, 

 when I found that I had been just anticipated by Prince 

 Bonaparte, who had characterized it shortly in the ' Comptes 

 Rendus ' as Calliste phcenicotis, and had at the same time 

 named the other species Calliste bourcieri. When Prince 

 Bonaparte discovered that he had committed an error in 

 passing over Tschudi's description of the former of these two 

 species, he endeavoured, with characteristic ingenuity, to pre- 

 serve the use of his own specific term by proposing to convert 

 Tschudi^s previously given name, " calliparaa," into a genus. 

 This, however, as 1 pointed out in 1851^, could not be per- 

 mitted, as he had already invented and published the generic 

 name Chlorochrysa for the same two birds. This generic 

 name I adopted in an article published in the ' Contributions 

 to Ornithology^ for 1851, and gave full particulars of what 

 was then known of the two species of the genus, accompanied 

 by accurate figures of both species from Mrs. Hugh Strick- 

 land^s accomplished pencil. 



Little more has been added to our knowledge of these two 

 interesting birds since that period. A few skins of them have 

 been received, chiefly from collectors in Ecuador. The only 

 addition made to the ranks of the genus has been the single 

 species discovered in the U. S. of Columbia by Mr. Salmon, 

 which I described last year as C. nitidissima. 



* Coutr. Orn. 1851, p. 93. 



