220 AMPELID^. 



characters of this species, besides which the bill is more feeble and less depressed 

 than in Ptilogonys, the rictal bristles being much longer. The wings have a large, 

 broad spurious primary, the second and third being broad and rounded at their tips, 

 the fifth the longest in the wing, slightly exceeding the fourth and sixth. The frontal 

 feathers, though not covering the nostrils, have a few long bristles which reach over 

 three fourths the length of the culmen. The tail is long and slightly rounded ; the 

 tarsi short as in Ptilogonys and Ampelis. 



This is a monotypic genus, its sole member, Phainopepla nitens, having a rather 

 wide range from the northern confines of Southern Mexico to the south-western and 

 south-middle States of the Union. 



1. Phainopepla nitens. 



Ptilogonys nitens, Sw. An. in Menag. p. 285 ' ; Bp. Consp. i. p. 335 ' ; Cass. 111. B. Cal. & Tex. 



p. 169, t. 29 ^ 

 Phainopepla nitens, Scl. P.Z. S. 1858, p. 543*; 1864, p. 173'; Baird, U.S. Bound. Surv. ii., Birds, 



p. 11' j Dresser, Ibis, 1865, p. 480'; Duges, La Nat. i. p. 141'. 

 Phxnopepla nitens, Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. p. 416 ' ; Sumichrast, Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. i. p. 548 " ; 



Baird, Brew. & Ridgw. N. Am. B. i. p. 405 "; Coues, B. Col. Vail. i. p. 475 ". 

 Lepturus galeatus, Less. (1838) fide Bonaparte ". 

 Ptilogonys aterrima, Licht. Mus. Ber." 



Nitens chalybeo-nigra unicolor, alarum remigibus pogonio interne medialiter alHs, crista elongata corpore 

 concolori. Long, tota 8"0, alae 4-0, caudse 4'2, rostri a rictu 0-7, tarsi 0'7. (Descr. maris ex urbis Mexico 

 vicinitate. Mus. nostr.) 



Pemina fusea, supra paulo saturatior, capite sicut in mare cristata, alis et cauda nigricanti-fuscis, UUs et crisso 

 albo undique marginatis. (Descr. feminse ex urbis Mexico vicinitate. Mus. nostr.) 



ffab. North America, Southern, Middle, and Western States ^^, Arizona &c.^, Texas ''. 

 — Mexico ^2, Coahuila (Couch ^), Guanajuato (Dug^s^), plateau of Mexico, valley 

 of Orizaba and State of Puebla (Sumichrast ^^), valley of Mexico (White ^), Sierras 

 of Mexico (le Strange), Cimapan (Deppe^^), Mirador (Sartorius^). 



Swainson first described this species, in 1837, from male and female specimens 

 obtained in Mexico, where it has since been found throughout the central and 

 northern portions of that country, and thence across the frontier into Texas, New 

 Mexico, Arizona, Lower and Southern California, and Southern Nevada. It does 

 not, however, seem to be found much to the southward of the city of Mexico ; for it 

 was not included in the collections of either M. Salle or of M. Boucard. It appears to 

 be absent, too, from 'the western coast. Prof. Sumichrast says it is well .distributed 

 throughout the plateau of Mexico, and, so far as he knows, but rarely reaches the 

 valley of Orizaba at an elevation of about 5000 feet 1°. He adds that it is very common 

 at Tehuantepec, a village near the city of Mexico. 



In the United States the habits of P. nitens have been watched by several excellent 



