PASSERINA. 269 
geur de riz; Cassique noir, &c.; Enl. 534; Brown, Ill. X; Wils. 
Ann. III, 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*. 
Pyreiray, 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—F’. cisalpina, Tem.; Fr. Italie, 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 synonymes 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 Oriolus niger. The Oriolus ludovicianus, Enl. 646, is only 
an albino variety of the same. It is evidently the Corvus surinamensis, Brown, II], 
pl. x. The Little Choucas of Jamaica, Sloane, Jam. II. 299, pl. cclvii, 1, quoted by 
Pennant as Gracula barita, and as quiscala, is the same bird again. On the other 
hand, it is impossible to doubt that Latham had it before him when he described his 
Oriolus oryxivorous. 
3. The true Carouge noir, with purple changes, bill rather short, but very straight, 
given as a Tanager, Enl. 710, and from which the Zan. honariensis 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. pl. 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 (etagée) 
tail, and the bill of an Icterus, but more arcuated near the point, &c. (a). 
+ Pyrgita, the Greek name for the Domestic Finch. 
{ The Hambouvreux, Buff. (Loxia hamburgia, Gm.), is merely the Friquet, disfi- 
gured by Albin., Ois. IIT, pl. 24. 
We should add to the ordinary Sparrows, the birds that have been scattered about 
by naturalists as follows, viz., Pringilla arcuata, Eni. 230, fig. 1, where it is much too 
red; its true tints are those of the Sparrows;—Fr. crucigera, Tem. 269;—Emberizxa 
2 (a) The bird quoted from Wils. III, xxi, 4, is not a Ploceus. It is the Quis- 
calus versicolor, Bonap., or the Gracula quiscala, L._—Ene. Ep. 
