46 FRINGILLID^E. 



/jj 



1 



^Tichodroma muraria. WALL-CREEPER. 



Tichodroma that runs along a wall ; from rel^os + 



Certhia muraria, Linnaeus, S. N. i. p. 184 (1766). 

 Tichodroma muraria, Naum. v. p. 421 ; Dresser, iii. p. 207. 



Muraria = frequenting walls, murus. 



Willughby (Orn. p. 99, 1576) observes that the Wall-creeper 

 is said to have occurred in England ; and one was found at 

 Stratton, in Norfolk, by Robert Marsham, in 1792 (cf. his 

 correspondence with Gilbert White, Trans. Norf. & Nor. Nat. 

 Soc. ii. pp. ] 77-189, 1876) ; but there is no later record. It 

 is an inhabitant of the mountain-ranges of Southern Europe, 

 extending eastward to the Himalayas./ 



Section OSCINES CONIRO STUBS. 

 Family FRINGILLID^E. 

 Subfamily FRINGILLIN^:. 



[Genus CYANOSPIZA, Baird, Birds N. America, p. 500 



(1858). 



Cyanosplza, from icvavos = dark blue metal, and airing. = a small piping 

 bird known to the Greeks. 



a ciris. NONPAREIL FINCH. 



Emberiza Ciris, Linnceus, S. N. i. p. 313 (1766). 

 Spiza ciris, Gray, p. 101. 



Ciris = fcelpis, a bird into which Scylla, the daughter of Nisus, was said 

 to have been changed. The fable (Virgil, Ciris, 488 ff., Ovid, Metam. 8, 151) 

 described it as indued with wonderful colours. 



A specimen was taken alive on Portland Island in 1802 

 (Montagu, Ornith. Diet. Suppl., under (( Grosbeak, White- 

 winged," fol. K. 2, 1813), which had evidently escaped from 

 confinement. An inhabitant of Central and North America.] 



