BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 659 



Genus SALTATOR Vieillot. 



Saltatory lEihUiT, Analyse, 1816, 32. (Type, ['Grand Tangurii, Buff. ," = Tanai/ra 

 magna Gmelin. ) 



Large, plainly colored Fringillidse, with tail nearlj^ if not quite as 

 long as wing, rounded; tarsus not conspicuously if at all longer than 

 middle toe with claw; bill rather large, usually elongate-conical, with 

 tip of maxilla more or less distinctly decurved and produced into a 

 distinct hook or point with distinct tomial notch behind it; maxillary 

 tomium not distinctly sinuate or lobed, and subbasal portion of man- 

 dibular tomium not angulated nor toothed; upper parts plain olive- 

 green, brown, or brownish gray (pileum sometimes black); under parts 

 plain grayish, passing into fulvous posteriorly, the throat white or 

 pale fulvous, or else under parts streaked with olive. 



Bill elongate-conical, with maxilla rather strongly decurved termi- 

 nally, its tip forming a distinct point or nngius, with distinct tomial 

 notch immediately behind; basal depth of bill less than distance from 

 nostril to tip of maxilla, decidedly greater than basal width ; culmen 

 moderately convex, more strongly so terminally; gonys straight or 

 very slightly convex, its length less than basal depth of bill; maxil- 

 lary tomium not distinctly sinuated nor lobed, its basal portion not 

 abraptly nor very strongly deflexed; mandibular tomium nearly 

 straight for most of its length, the subbasal portion not angulated nor 

 toothed,' but gradually rounded to the rictus, the terminal portion 

 more or less beveled off to the point of the mandible. Nostril 

 exposed, small, roundish, in anterior portion of nasal fosses, overhung 

 by rather distinct membrane; nasal fossae feathered to posterior edge 

 of nostrils. Rictal bristles obvious but rather small. Wing moderate, 

 rounded, the tip much shorter than tarsus; seventh to fifth primaries 

 longest, the outermost (ninth) shorter than third, usually shorter than 

 second. Tail nearly if not quite as long as wing, rounded. Tarsus 

 rather stout, longer than commissure, less than to a little more than 

 one-fourth as long as wing, its scutella distinct; middle toe, with 

 claw, about as long as tarsus, or slightly shorter; lateral toes, with 

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

 lateral toes but much stouter, its claw much shorter than the digit. 



Coloration. — Above plain olive-green, oli^^e, or brownish gray, the 

 pileum sometimes black; beneath plain grayish or buffy grayish, 

 passing into fulvous posteriorly, the throat more or less extensively 

 white or white and fulvous; a white superciliary stripe (yellow in 

 young); sometimes a black "collar" across chest. 



'Except in some South American species which, though usually referred to this 

 genus, are probably generically distinct (for example, S. auraniiiroslrisNi&iWot, S. atri- 

 coUis Vieillot, and S. laiiclavius Sclater and Salvin). These have typically fringilline 

 bills, the commissure being abruptly deflexed basally and the subbasal portion of 

 the mandibular tomium distinctly angulated. 



