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Genus ERYTHROSPIZA. 



Fringilla apud Gould, P. Z. S. 1837, p. 27. 



Pyrrhula apud Audouin, Expl. PL Ois. d'Egypte, p. 286 (1825). 



Erythrospiza, Bonaparte, Comp. List, p. 34 (1838). 



Carpodacus apud Blyth, J. As. Soc. Beng. xvi. p. 476 (1847). 



Montifringilla apud Gould, fide Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 535 (1850). 



Bucanetes apud Cabanis, Mus. Hein. i. p. 164 (1850-51). 



Mhodopechys apud Bonaparte, Cat. Parzud. p. 4 (1856). 



Serinus apud Gloger, fide Bolle, Naumannia, 1858, p. 393. 



Erythrothoracc apud Brehm, fide Bolle, ut supra. 



The Scarlet winged Bullfinches are closely allied on the one side to Carpodacus, and on the other 

 to Pyrrhula. They inhabit the southern parts of the Palsearctic and northern portions of the 

 Oriental and Ethiopian Regions, two species only being found in the Western Palsearctic Region. 

 They frequent wild, sterile localities in preference to cultivated places, and are usually found in 

 rocky or else in sparsely bush-covered spots, either in the mountains or in the plains. As a 

 rule, they are shy and wild. Their flight is tolerably strong, and their note pleasing. They 

 make a tolerably well-constructed cup-shaped nest, which they place either in a hole or on a 

 tree, and deposit pale greenish eggs marked with reddish brown or greyish. 



Erythrospiza sanguinea, the type of the genus, has the bill stout, strong, nearly as broad as 

 high at the base, compressed towards the tip, which is acute ; upper mandible overhanging the 

 lower at the tip ; nostrils basal, concealed by recurved stiff feathers ; wings rather long, pointed, 

 the quills externally margined with red, first quill attenuated and very small, the second longest, 

 the third scarcely shorter ; tail moderately long, slightly forked ; tarsus moderately slender, 

 covered in front with four large and three inferior scutellse ; toes rather long and slender ; claws 

 moderately curved, laterally grooved. 



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