CCEBEBIB^ : HONEY CBEEPEES. TANAGBID^ : TANAGEBS. 317 



10. Family CCEREBID^ : Honey Creepers. 



Primaries 9, and other external characters very ncai-ly as in the last family: but the bill is 

 generally slenderer and sharper, and often a little decurvcd. The line between the two fami- 

 lies has never been drawn with precision, and has become more difficult of expression since 

 some of the Sylvicolidm have proven possessed of a peculiarity of the Coerehidm : deeply bifid, 

 penicillate tongue. As commonly understood, it is a small group containing perhaps 40 species 

 of pretty little birds, of the genera C'erthiola, Diglossa, and Cosreba, confined to tropical and 

 subtropical America, being especially numerous in the West Indies. Our species is merely a 

 stray visitor to Florida. 



47. CERTHI'OLA. (Diminutive of Lat. certhia, a creeper. Tig. 177.) Honey Creepees. 

 Bill little shorter than head, stout at base, hut rapidly tapering to tlie extremely acute tip ; 

 whole bill much curved, culmen very convex, outhne of under mandible contivmously concave 

 from base to tip. Rictus unbristled. Wings long, exceeding the short rounded tail. Tarsus 

 longer than middle toe without claw. Contains about 15 species or varieties, mostly West 

 Indian. 



153. C. baliamen'sis, (Of the Bahamas.) Bahaman Honey Creeper. Dark hrown above ; 

 long supercihary line and under parts dull white ; breast, edge of wing, and rump, bright 

 yellow ; wings dusky, with a white spot at base of primaries, and whitish edging of the quills ; 

 tail dusky, tipped with white ; bill and feet black ; eyes blue. Length 4.50 ; wing 2.33 ; tail 

 1.75. Florida; Bahamas; closely related to the Stock species, C. flaveola. 



11. Family TANAGRID^: : Tanagers. 



An extensive, brilliant family, confined to America, 

 abounding in species between the tropics. Its position 

 is a point at issue with ornithologists ; it may naturally 

 follow the CosrehidnE and SylvicolidcE, though certainly 

 no families should stand between it and FringilUdce. 

 In fact, certain troi)ical forms might be assigned to 

 either indifierently. The best definition of the Tana- 



PiG. 178. — Dentirostral blUof a Tana- gers is that given by the distinguished ornithologist 

 gsx (I'l/ranga hepatica), ivAt. size. ,„, ^ , ,n l *l, u ^ ^- ^ i .c , ,. i , . 



who called them " dentu-ostral finches ;" but this gen- 

 eralization, like other happy epigrams, is insusceptible of application in detail, and the Tana- 

 gers remain to be precisely characterized. As a consequence, the number (jf species can 

 hardly he approximately estimated ; hut upwards of 300 are usually enumerated. 



The single well-established North American genus may he recognized, among all tlie 

 birds of our country, by the combination of nine primaries and scutellate tarsi with a turgid 

 biU, notched at the tip and toothed ox lohed near the middle of the maxillary tomia (fig. 17S); 

 though this last character is sometimes so obscure that it might be h.oked at without being 

 seen. The species of Pyranga are birds of brilliant colors, \rith great seasonal and sexual 

 diff'erences of plumage. They are frugivorous and insectivorous, and consequently migratory 

 in the United States. They inhabit woodland, lay 4-5 dark-colored, speckled eggs, nest in 

 trees, and are no great songsters. In distribution they are rather southerly, scarcely passing 

 northward beyond the U. S. One species of another genus, Eiiphonia elegantissima, admitted 

 to our fauna upon insufiicient evidence, doubtless occurs over the Mexican border. 



48. PYRAN'GA. (Barbarous name of some South American bird.) Summer Tanagers. Bill 

 stout, turgid, conoidal, usually notched at tip, and with one or more denticulations of the cut- 

 ting edge of upper mandible near middle of commissure. Eictal bristles well-developed. Nos- 

 trils basal, the frontal antise reaching them. Wings lengthened and pointed ; first 4 feathers 



