95 
This species has somewhat the form of P. aperta, but wants 
the transverse impressed groove seen in that species; the plates of 
the gizzard, moreover, are produced at each end into long slender 
processes, somewhat similar to those of P. Schreeteri, the shell of 
which is very different in form. 
March 28, 1854. 
Dr. Gray, Vice-President, in the Chair. 
Mr. Gould exhibited male and female specimens of a very rare 
English Duck, described in 1847 by Mr. Bartlett, under the name 
of Fuligula ferinoides. The specimens exhibited were lent to Mr. 
Gould by M. Van den Bergh, of Rotterdam. Mr. Gould men- 
tioned, that only three instances of the occurrence of the bird in 
England are on record; one of the specimens is in the collection of 
J. H. Gurney, another in that of Mr. Doubleday, of Epping, and 
the third in the museum of the late Earl of Derby, at Liverpool. 
The following papers were then read :— 
1. CHARACTERS OF SOME NEW OR IMPERFECTLY-DESCRIBED 
SPECIES oF TANAGERS. 
By Pururp Lutztey Scuater, M.A., F.Z.S. 
(Aves, Pl. LXIV. and LXV.) 
I have been collecting Tanagers for some time, with the view of 
ultimately attempting a monograph of the family. But the forms in 
many of the genera are so closely allied, and the limits of the family 
itself at present so unsettled, that a larger collection of species, and 
a much ‘greater familiarity with the subject-matter than I have yet 
had time to acquire, are requisite before such a monograph can be 
satisfactorily completed. Puzzling indeed to ornithologists would 
seem the question, ‘‘ What is a Tanager?” as puzzling perhaps as to 
political economists Sir Robert Peel’s celebrated poser, “ What is a 
pound?”? My ideas on this point, that is, I mean, as to the posi- 
tion and extent of the family or subfamily of Tanagers, coincide, I 
believe, nearly with those of Mr. G. R. Gray. 
ATanager I consider to be a dentirostral Finch—to be distinguished 
from other more typical Fringillide by the presence of one or more 
teeth or notches in the upper mandible (sometimes further developing 
themselves into serrations, as in certain species of Huphonia and Ta- 
chyphonus), and the cuimen being always more or less inflexed, never 
straight. The colours of the group are generally very brilliant. They 
feed on ripe fruit, some on insects, and perhaps in habits rather 
resemble Sylviade than true Fringillide. 
