644 NONPAREIL 



a shallow nest of sea-weed or small twigs, which may be placed on 

 the ground, on a tuft of grass, or in the fork of a tree, while some- 

 times it lays its eggs on a bare rock. Mr. Saunders {Froc. Zool. Soc. 

 1876, pp. 669-672) admitted four other species of the genus: — 

 Anous tenuirostris, supposed to be confined to the southern part of 

 the Indian Ocean, from Madagascar to West Australia ; A. melano- 

 gemjs, often confounded with the last, but having nearly as wide a 

 range as the first ; ^ and A. leucocapillus, hitherto known only from 

 Torres Strait and the Southern Pacific. These three have much 

 resemblance to A. stolidus, but are smaller in size, and the two latter, 

 which have the crown white instead of grey, are now considered 

 to be identical. The fourth species, A. cseruleus, with which he 

 then included the A. cinereus of some authors, but subsequently 

 (op. cit. 1878, pp. 211, 212) recognized the last as distinct, diff'ers 

 not inconsiderably, being of a dove-colour, lighter on the head and 

 darker on the back, the wings bearing a narrow white bar, with 

 their quill-feathers blackish-brown, while the feet are reddish and 

 the webs yellow. Three more species — A. superciliosus from the 

 Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, A. plumbeigularis from the Red 

 Sea, and A. galapagensis from the Galapagos — were added by Dr. 

 Sharpe {Philos. Trans, clxviii. pp. 468, 469) ; while Mr. Rothschild 

 has described and figured {Avifauna of Laysan, p. 43, pi.) the birds 

 which frequent the Sandwich Islands as forming a tenth — A. 

 haioaiiensis. 



NONPAREIL, the name under which, from its supposed match- 

 less beauty, a little cage-bird, chiefly imported from New Orleans, 

 has long been known to English dealers [cf. Edwards, Gleanings, 

 i. p. 1 32). It is the Emberiza ciris of Linnaeus and the Cyanospiza, 

 Spiza or Passerina ciris of recent ornithologists, belonging to a small 

 group, which, in the present state of knowledge, cannot with 

 certainty be referred either to the Buntings or to the Finches, while 

 some authors have regarded it as a Tanager. The cock has the 

 head, neck, and lesser wing-coverts bright blue, the upper part of 

 the back yellow, deepening into green, and the lower parts generally, 

 together with the rump, bright scarlet, tinged on the latter with 

 purple. This gorgeous colouring is not assumed until the bird is 

 at least two years old. The hen is green above and yellow beneath ; 

 and the younger cocks present an appearance intermediate between 

 the adults of either sex. The species, often called also the Painted 

 Bunting, after wintering in Central America or Mexico, arrives in 

 the southern States of the American Union in April, but does not 

 ordinarily proceed to the northward of South Carolina. In 



1 According to information supplied to Dr. F. Penrose {Ibis, 1879, p. 280) this 

 species took up a station in 1878 on the Island of Ascension in large numbers, it 

 having been hitherto unknown there. 



