334 FBINGILLID^. 



Fam. PRINGILLID^*. 



PHEUCTICUS. 



Pheucticm, Reichenbachj Av. Syst. t. Ixxviii. (1850), 



We are now acquainted with six species of this purely Neotropical genus, two 

 of which come within our limits, neither of them passing beyond. The range of 

 P. chrysopeplm is restricted to Western Mexico, and that of P. tibialis to Costa Eica 

 and the adjoining part of the State of Panama. The four southern species are all 

 Andean, P. chrysogaster being also found in Venezuela. 



The species of Pheucticus may readily be distinguished, so far as the males are 

 concerned, by the following characters f : — 



A. Capite summo flavo ant flavido. 



a. Cauda albo terminata : 



minor 1- chrysogaster. 



major, rostro validissimo 2. chrysopeplus. 



b. Canda omnino nigra 3. tibialis. 



B. Capite summo nigro dorso concolore. 



c. Uropygio nigro 4. aureiventris. 



d. Uropygio flavo nigro variegato : 



guttnre nigro 5. uropygialis. 



gutture flavo 6. hemichrysus. 



In Pheucticus the beak is more fully developed than in any other American genus 

 of Fringillidse, except perhaps Coccothraustes and some species of Oryzohorus. The 

 culmen is high and the round nostrils exposed ; the commissure of the maxilla is abruptly 

 angular, and the mandible very strongly developed ; the rictal bristles are short, but 

 stout. The wings are moderately long, the second, third, and fourth primaries being 

 the longest, the first and fifth nearly equalling them ; the tail is long, and but slightly 

 rounded ; the tarsi and toes are short and the claws rather feeble, indicating a strictly 

 arboreal habit ; the general colours of the plumage throughout the genus are black and 

 yellow, and there is considerable diversity between the sexes, at least in some members. 



* Any thing like a satisfactory classification of the FringiHidse remains yet to be aocomplished ; and as the 

 family is represented over nearly the whole world, it is evident that no arrangement that did not embrace all 

 the genera should be attempted. Prof. Baird, in 'The History of North-American Birds,' expressed his 

 inability to define satisfactorily the limits of the siibfamilies of the North-American Fringillidse owing to the 

 difficulty of drawing the lines of difference with precision, but be adopts five subfamilies, and proceeds to 

 arrange the genera under these heads. A somewhat similar plan had been employed by Mr. Sclater in his 

 ' Catalogue of American Birds ;' and by Salvin in his ' Catalogue of the Strickland Collection;' but in view of 

 the trivial and variable character of the definitions of the subfamilies, we here adopt the plan of the ' Nomen- 

 clator Avium Neotropicalium,' and simply place the genera seriatim in what appears to be their most natural 

 order without attempting to define any larger divisions. 



t Ouiraca magnirostris, Bp. P. Z. 8. 1837, p. 120=Phmcti(ms honapartii, Salvad. Att. E. Ace. Sc. Tor. iv. 

 p. 178, is unknown to us. 



