580 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Genus CYANOSPIZA Baird. 



Cyanospiza Baird, Rep. Pacific R. R. Surv., ix, June 19, 1858, 500. (Type, Tan- 

 agra cyanea Linnaeus.)^ 



Small semi-arboreal Fringillidfe with rather long, rather pointed 

 wings, tail shorter than wing and even or slightly double-rounded, and 

 small bill with mandible conspicuously deeper than maxilla, the latter 

 more or less falcate; adult males brilliantly colored, with blue, green, 

 purple, or sometimes red predominating, the adult females and young 

 plain brown or green above, paler and sometimes obsoletely streaked 

 beneath. 



Bill small, much deeper than broad at the base, with the mandible 

 conspicuously deeper than the maxilla, the latter more or less falcate; 

 culmen shorter than middle toe without claw, more or less convex, 

 distinctly ridged; gonys straight, shorter than distance from nostril to 

 tip of maxilla; maxillary tomium abruptly angulated subbasally {ci/a- 

 nea), gradually concave throughout (versicolor), or variously interme 

 diate between these extremes; mandibular tomium straight to the 

 abrupt subbasal angle {cyanea), convex or arched throughout without 

 a subbasal angle {versicolor), or variously intermediate; no obvious 

 notch near tip of maxillary tomium. Nostril exposed, very small, 

 roundish, in anterior portion of nasal fossae. Rictal bristles very 

 minute (obvious only in versicolor). Wing moderate to long (three 

 and three-fourths to nearly four and a half times as long as tarsus), 

 pointed, with ninth primary nearly or quite the longest {arrmna); 

 rounded, with ninth primary shorter than fourth {versicolor), or vari- 

 ously intermediate (other species). Tail three-fourths to four-fifths as 

 long as wing, even or slightly double-rounded {cyamsa, ciris), slightly 

 rounded {versicolor), or emarginated {ammna). Tarsus about one- 

 third as long as tail (more or less), equal to or slightly longer than 

 middle toe with claw, its scutella distinct; lateral claws not reaching to 

 base of middle claw; hallux shorter than lateral toes, its claw decidedly 

 shorter than the digit. 



Colors. — Adult males with more or less of blue, sometimes varied 

 with purple, red, orange, yellow, or green; adult femajles plain brown- 

 ish or olive-green above, paler (sometimes indistinctly streaked) beneath; 

 young similar to adult females, but more distinctly streaked beneath. 



Although the genus Cyanospiza, as usually limited, constitutes a 

 very well circumscribed group so far as coloration is concerned, it is 

 found to be a rather heterogeneous one when structural characters are 

 considered. No two of the species agree very closely in details of 

 external form, G. versicolor being, perhaps, the most aberrant, in its 

 much-rounded wing, distinctly rounded tail, narrow, falcate maxilla, 

 broad mandible, and strongly arched commissure. C. cirls most nearly 



'See Ridgway, Auk, xv, Oct., 1898, 323. 



