96 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Sporagra Reichenbach, Av. Syst. Nat., 1850, pi. 79, fig. 14. (Type, FringiUa 



magellanica Vieillot. ) 

 Melanomitris Cassin, Proo. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., xvii, 1865, 91. (Type, Carduelis 



atratus Lafresnaye and D'Orbigny. ) 



Small arboreal finches, with small or moderate-sized conical acute 

 bill, long, pointed wings, rather short, eiaarginate tail, short tarsi, 

 and with the plumage mainly black and yellow (sometimes olive-green 

 above and yellowish below in adult females and young), in one species 

 black and red (male), or gray and red (female); the remiges and rec- 

 trices (except middle pair of the latter) yellow or red at base. 



Bill moderate in size, conical, compressed, sometimes attenate ter- 

 minally, its depth at base not more than length of maxilla from 

 nostril (usually less), its basal width (across base of mandible) much 

 less than the depth; exposed culmen not longer than middle toe with- 

 out claw (except in /S. notatus and S. n. Jbrreri), nearly straight, some- 

 times slightly convex, more rarely appreciably concave in middle 

 portion; gonys about equal to length of maxilla from nostril or slightly 

 shorter, straight or slightly concave; maxillary tomium nearly straight, 

 but always' with appreciable sinuation anterior to the very decided 

 basal deflection; mandibular tomium nearly straight to the strongly 

 convex, arched, or occasionally prominently angled subbasal portion. 

 Nostril small, roundish, more or less covered by antrorse latero-frontal 

 plumules; rictal bristles inconspicuous, or else having lateral barbules 

 and these modified into plumules like those covering the nasal fossae. 

 Wing long and pointed (ninth primai'y much longer than fifth, usually 

 equal to sixth, sometimes nearly equal to eighth, the eighth, or seventh 

 and eighth, longest); primaries exceeding secondaries bj' moi"e than 

 length of tarsus; tertials not longer than secondaries. Tail much more 

 than half but less than two-thirds as long as wing, distinctly emar- 

 ginate. Tarsus decidedly longer than exposed culmen, its scutella 

 distinct; middle toe, with claw, equal to or longer than tarsus; lateral 

 claws reaching about to base of middle claw; hallux about as long 

 as lateral toes, but much stouter, its claw not longer (usually shorter) 

 than the digit. 



Coloration. — Basal portion of remiges and rectrices (except some- 

 times in young) yellow or red, often exposed as conspicuous patches; 

 adults, at least adult males, with the plumage mamly black and yellow, 

 or black, olive-green, and yellow (black and scarlet or grayish and 

 scarlet in S. cvxiullatus) ; adult females (if different from males) olive- 

 greenish above, yellowish beneath, the wings and tail marked with 

 yellow, as in males. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF SPINUS. 



a. No red in the plumage. 

 6. Under parts distinctly streaked, at least on under tail-coverta. 

 ".. Pileum (but not sides of head) uniform black or dusky. 



