EUPHONIA ELEGANTISSIMA 349 



It is not that Tanagers are not highly ornamental, but that 

 they are sometimes out of place. I have already remarked 

 (p. 196) upon the intimacy of relationship between these birds 

 and the Sylvicolidce and Fringillidce, and I know of no charac- 

 ters whereby a family Tanagridce can be distinguished from 

 these and one or two other recognized families of nine-prima- 

 ried Oscines. Tanagers ordinarily lack the truly conic shape 

 of the bill and angulation of the commissure so often seen in 

 Fringillidce ; but in both families the form of bill is endlessly 

 varied. The bill is usually stouter and more conoidal than it 

 is in the Sylvicolidce, but the exceptions to any such assumed 

 rule are too numerous to warrant its recogition as a means of 

 diagnosis. The wings, tail, and feet offer nothing distinctive; 

 there are nine primaries, twelve rectrices, and a thoroughly 

 Oscine structure of the tarsal envelope in both of the reputed 

 families, while the proportionate lengths and details of shape 

 of these members are distinctive of neither group. 



The North American representative of the family, Pyranga, is 

 easily distinguished from any other genus of this country, how- 

 ever the case may be inside its own family ranks. 



A beautiful Tanager of the genus Euplionia has been ascribed 

 to the United States, but on insufficient evidence of its actual 

 occurrence over our border. It was originally described by the 

 Prince Bonaparte as a bird of Mexico, and shortly afterward 

 figured by J. P. Giraud as one of his sixteen new species of 

 birds of "Texas". We are likely to hear of it again, however, 

 at any moment, as an inhabitant of the valley of the Lower 

 Rio Grande or that of the Lower Colorado.* 



*Eu5Iioiiia elegantissima. C celestial Tanager. 



Pipra elegantissima, Bp. PZS. 1837, 112 (Mexico). 



Euphonia elegantissima, Gray, "G. of B. , App. 17". Cass. Pr. Phila. Acad.iv. 1848, 



90 (Xalapa). Scl "Contr. Orn. 1851, 83 ". Bd. Eep. Great Salt Lake, 1852, 330. Scl. 



PZS. 1855, 66. Scl. PZS. 1856, 272 (synonyms, &c.). Scl. PZS. 1858, 303 (La Parada). 



Bd. BNA. 1858, 304 ; ed. of 1860, Atlas, pi. 71, f. Scl. PZS. 1859, 364, 378. 8. & S. 



Ibis, 1859, 16. Cab. J. f. 0. 1860, 331 (Costa Rica). Scl. Cat. AB. 1861, 56. Law. Ann. 



Lye. N. T. ix. 1868, 98 (Costa Rica). Scl. PZS. 1870, 185 (Veragua). Orton, Am. Nat, 



iv. 1871, 714. 



Euphona elegantissima, Bp. CA. i. 1850, 332. Gieb. Nomencl. Av. 1874, 135. 

 Eupbonia coelestls, Less. Kev. Zool. 1839, 42. Dubus, "Esq. Ornith. 1850, pi. 14" (others 



quote "pi. 8"). 

 Azure-capped Manakin, Pipra galericnlata, Giraud, Sixt. Sp. Tex. B. 1841, not paged, 



folio 21, n. 10. pi. 5, f. 2. 



HAS. Mexico and Central America. Said to have occurred in Southern 

 Texas and near San Francisco, Cal. 



