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With these views, IJ keep among the Tanagers the Pityli and 
Saltatores, excluded therefrom by certain modern systematists, and 
retained among the Fringillide, while the whole of what may be 
termed the more typical portion of the group is removed far away to 
the neighbourhood of the Sylvicoline. 
Now I think it will be impossible to settle these, and other families 
belonging to the South American Fauna, in a really satisfactory way, 
until we know much more than we do at present of the habits and 
customs of the animals of that vast continent. Unfortunately those 
who have hitherto written upon the ornithology of that country have 
in general had too little previous scientific knowledge of the subject. 
Not, of course, that this makes them less accurate observers of facts, 
but only less likely to hit upon the right facts to be observed. A per- 
son previously well acquainted with the varied forms of South Ameri- 
can ornithology by study of the European collections, so as to know 
what points required looking up, would, I have little doubt, be na 
much more favourable condition for observing these animals in their 
native haunts, and thereby solving many of those doubts which at 
present so perplex the student of natural history. As, however, we 
may perhaps have to wait some time before a determination of the 
question ‘ What is a Tanager?” can be arrived at in this manner, 
I propose adopting as provisional limits for the family or subfamily, 
nearly those given by Mr. G. R. Gray in his ‘ Genera of Birds,’ ex- 
cluding only the genera Pipilo, Embernagra, and Emberizoides, which 
appear to me to go better with Zonotrichia and its allied forms. To 
show the arrangement I contemplate, I have formed a list* of the 
genera and species, which may perhaps be useful for collectors to 
mark off their duplicates or desiderata ; though, as a mere catalogue 
of names, it is, of course, of no scientific value. Some of the many 
lately-furmed genera now used, I may hereafter find occasion to con- 
solidate, the principle of subdivision having been carried to great 
lengths in this as in other families. 
My present list contains the names of 222 species, though I have 
no doubt that many more remain to be discovered. These are all 
believed to be real, not nominal species ; indeed I have myself seen 
specimens of nearly the whole of them, and the ten or twelve I have 
not personally examined I believe rest on good authority. The 
names used are many of them taken from Bonaparte’s ‘ Conspectus,’ 
his “‘ Note sur les Tangaras” in the ‘ Rev. et Mag. de Zool.’ for 1851, 
the ‘Museum Heineanum’ of Cabanis, and my own papers in Sir 
William Jardine’s ‘ Contributions.’ 
The Tanagers are essentially a South American family. Out of 
the whole 222 species, 193 are from the continent south of the Isth- 
mus of Panama, and the rest mostly either from Central America or 
Southern Mexico. Three or four only are peculiar to certain of the 
West Indian islands, and three only, well-known members of the 
genus Pyranga, extend as summer migrants into the United States of 
North America. Through South America they range down to the Rio 
* Tanagrarum Catalogus Specificus. Auctore Philippi Lutley Sclater. Basing- 
stoke, 1854. 8vo. 16 pp. 
