PASSEKIN/E. 269 



geur de riz; Cassique noir, &c. ; Enl. 534; Brown, 111. X; Wils. 

 Ann. Ill, xxi, 4, (the Rice-Eater), which, in immense flocks, de- 

 vastates the fields of several of the warmer portions of America. Its 

 colour is a changeable black, reflecting all the magnificent tints of 

 burnished steel*. 



PyRGiTA-f-, Cuv. 



In the Sparrows proper the bill is shorter than in the preceding birds, 

 conical, and merely a little convex near the point. 



Fringilla domestica, Enl. 6, 1; Naum. 115, (The Common 

 Sparrow). Builds in holes of walls, and infests inhabited places by 

 its audacity and voracity. Brown, spotted with black above, grey 

 underneath ; a whitish band on the wing ; sides of the calotte red in 

 the male ; his throat black. 



There is a species, or a variety, in Italy, of which the male's head 

 is entirely chesnut colour — Fr. cisalpina, Tem. ; Fr. Italice, Vieill. 

 Galer. 63. The black on the throat sometimes extends to the 

 breast; it is then the Fr. hispaniolensis. 



Fr. montana; Le Friquet; Enl. 267, 1; Naum. 116, 1, 2. The 

 Mountain Linnet remains further from our habitations. It has two 

 white bands on the wing, a red calotte, and the side of the head white, 

 with a black spot ;};. 



* Nomenclators have not yet succeeded in putting in order the black birds of 

 America, more or less nearly allied to the Cassici, for the want of sufficiently de- 

 tailed descriptions. We think it right to indicate the principal ones here, and at the 

 same time to point out such of their synonjTnes as appear to be the most clearly as- 

 certained. 



1. The Cassique noir a mantelet, as above. 



2. The bird mentioned above, well drawn, but painted without its reflected tints, 

 Enl. 534, and quoted under Oriohis niger. The Oriolus litdovicianus, Enl. 646, is only 

 an albino variety of the same. It is evidently the Corims surinamensis, Brown, III, 

 pi. X. The Little Choucas of Jamaica, Sloane, Jam. II. 299, pi. cclvii, 1, quoted by 

 Pennant as Gracula barita, and as quiscata, is the same bird agaiji. On the other 

 hand, it is impossible to doubt that Latham had it before him when ho described his 

 Oriolus oryzivorous. 



3. The true Carouge noir, with purple changes, bill rather short, but very straight, 

 given as a Tanager, Enl. 710, and from which the Tan. bonariensis has been made; 

 but this figure really represents the Oriolus minor. The fig. 2, Enl. 606, is given, 

 but erroneously, for the female, which has a very different appearance. 



4. A true Icterus, of a deep black, with violet reflections, sharp-pointed and some- 

 what arcuated bill, whose tail is hollowed out like a boat. It is the Boat-tailed 

 Grakle of Penn. and Latham, which both those gentlemen consider as synonymous 

 with the Gracula barita, and yet it certainly is the bird of Catesb. pi. 12, of which 

 Lin. made his Gracula quiscala; but Catesby has given a bad drawing of the bill. 



5. A black bird, with violet and green reflections, somewhat cuneiform (etagee) 

 tail, and the bill of an Icterus, but more arcuated near the point, &c. (a). 



f Pyrgita, the Greek name for the Domestic Finch. 



X The Hambouvreux, Buff". {Loxia hamburgia, Gm.), is merely the Friquet, disfi- 

 gured by Albin., Ois. Ill, pi. 24. 



We should add to the ordinary Sparrows, the birds that have been scattered about 

 by naturalists as follows, viz., Fringilla arcuata, Enl. 230, fig. 1, where it is much too 

 red; its true tints are those of the Sparrows; — Fr. crucigera, Tem. 269; — Emberiza 



^^ (n) The bird quoted from Wils. Ill, xxi, 4, is not a Ploceus. It is the Quis- 

 calus versicolor, Bonap., or the Gracula quiscala, L. — Eng. Ed. 



