CAEDINALI8. 341 



2. Cardinalis igneus. 



■Cardinalis iffneui, Baird, Pr. Ac. Phil. 1859, p. 305 \ 



Cardinalis virginianus, var. igneus, Baird, Brew., &Ridgw. N. Am. B. ii.p. 99^ Lawr. Mem. Bost. 



Soc. N. H. ii. p. 275 ' ; Belding, Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. yi. p. 343 \ 

 ■Cardinalis virginianus, Finsch, Abh. nat. Ver. z. Bremen, 1870, p. 339' ; Grayson, Pr Bost Soc. 



N. H. xiv. p. 281 ». 



C. virginiam^ persimilis, froiite in mare minime nigra, colore nigro guise et faciei in femina omnino absente (?) 

 forsan disfcinguendus. 



Eab. North America, Cape San Lucas i, Arizona i 2,_Mbxico, Guaymas {Belding% 

 Mazatlan^Sj Tres Marias Islands ^^ {Grayson, Forrer). 



We have considerable doubts if this bird can be satisfactorily distinguished from 

 C. virginianus in all cases ; the bill in typical birds is hardly appreciably larger, though 

 the black forehead seems certainly narrower. In the birds from the Tres Marias 

 Islands, however, we find the bill much more tumid, the back still greyer, and the top 

 of the head and crest less conspicuously red. The specimens in our collection, however, 

 exhibit one character which, if constant, would determine the validity of C. igneus. The 

 females, of which we have examples from Mazatlan and the Tres Marias Islands, have 

 no black on the throat, which is of a dirty whitish colour, instead of being black. 

 Whether this is really a constant character of C. igneus, and found in the birds of Lower 

 California as well as of the places mentioned, we have no present means of ascertaining. 

 The descriptions of the female of G. igneus speak of it as only distinguishable from that 

 of C. virginianus by its more swollen bill, and by the more restricted dusky colour around 

 the base of the bill. From this it would appear that our female birds from Mazatlan 

 and the Tres Marias Islands do not conform to those of C. igneus ; and were we sure 

 that the former were in their normal plumage we should be disposed to separate the 

 bird of those districts from C. igneus. But the shades of distinction between the dif- 

 ferent forms of C. virginianus are so close that we hesitate to subdivide them further 

 than has already been done without the evidence of more materials upon which to form 

 a sounder judgment. 



Grayson says that this Cardinalis is remarkably abundant upon the Marias Islands, 

 where it is a constant resident, but that it is not numerous on the mainland ^. Mr. 

 Forrer procured us specimens from both places. 



3. Cardinalis carneus. 



Coccothr.austes {Cwdinalis) carneus. Less. Rev. Zool. 1842, p. 210'; Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 501 ^ 

 Cardinalis virginianus, var. carneus, Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N. Am. B. ii. p. 99 ' ; Lawr. Mem. Bost. 



Soc. N. H. 11. p. 275 *; Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 4, p. 20 '. 

 Cardinalis virginianus, Salv. P. Z. S. 1883, p. 421 °. 



€. virginiano quoque persimilis, sed crista coccinea valde elongata, dorso pure coccineo hand cinereo intermixto 



distinguendus. 

 $ nobis ignota. 



