286 TANAGEID^. 



{G. M. Whitely^), Omoa [Leyland^) ; Nicabagua, Mosquito coast (McMoim^), 

 Chontales {Belt ^^) ; Costa Eica, Orosi, San Carlos, Sarapiqui {v. Frantzius ^^), 

 Navarro {Cooper ^i), Angostura {Carmiol ^^), Tucurriqui {ArG6). 



This beautiful species is restricted in its range to the hot low-lying forests of the 

 eastern side of the Cordillera from Southern Mexico to Costa Eica, Occasionally, 

 Sumichrast tells us ^°, it ascends the mountains to an elevation of nearly 4000 feet, in the 

 State of Vera Cruz ; and we ourselves observed it in the forest-country north of Coban 

 in Vera Paz, at a height of between 3000 and 4000 feet. At Choctum, however, we 

 found it more numerous than elsewhere, a forest-region lying at an elevation of about 

 1200 feet. Here it frequented the openings in the forest and the sides of rivers and 

 streams, keeping to the lower branches of trees and shrubs rather than to the 

 tree-tops. 



Southwards of Guatemala we have traced this species through Honduras and Nica- 

 ragua to Costa Rica, but always on the eastern side of the mountains. It is thus a 

 species peculiar to our region. 



The sexes of P. sanguinolenta are coloured exactly alike ; in Bhamphocoelus the 

 female is always a much duller coloured bird, and not unfrequently very different from 

 the male. 



PYEANGA. 



Pyranga, Vieillot, Anal. p. 32 (1816) (type Tanagra rubra, Linn.) ; Scl. P. Z. S. 1856, p. 123. 

 Phcenisoma, Sw. Classif. B. ii. p. 284 (1837). 



Sixteen species are now included in this genus, of which no less than ten are found 

 within our limits. Four of these are migratory birds, which spend the summer in North 

 America and pass their winter in Mexico and Central America, some of them travelling 

 far beyond into the southern continent. P. hepatica, a species of southern type, is also a 

 bird of Mexico which passes the frontier of the United States. The peculiar species of 

 our territory are — P. erythrocephala of the highlands of Southern Mexico, P. roseigularis 

 of Northern Yucatan, P.Jiglina of British Honduras, and P. erythromeloena and P. 

 Udentata, both of which enjoy a wide range from Mexico to Panama, but do not pass 

 southwards beyond our limits. Only one southern species, P. testacea, extends its 

 range into Central America, as far as Nicaragua. 



Of the five remaining species, two, viz. P. limmalea and P. saira, are close relations 

 of P. testacea in Guiana and Brazil respectively. P. azarce of Paraguay and Bolivia is 

 closely allied to P. hepatica. P. ardens is a southern form, in northern and north- 

 western South America, of P. erythromelcena ; and P. rubriceps, the only well-marked 

 species of Pyranga in South America, is found just beyond our border in Colombia. 

 Thus it will be seen that, though one of the most widely distributed genera of Tanagers, 

 its focus is Mexico and Central America. At the same time, it is the only genus of 

 Tanagers found in North America, where, however, four of the five species are strictly 

 migratory birds. 



