ATLAPETES. — PIPILO. 405 



authors. The position of the genus itself, too, is a matter of controversy, some writers 

 placing it with the Tanagers near Buarvemon, others near Embemagra with the Finches. 

 It is the latter position that we have been accustomed to assign to it, but we are by no 

 means confident that this view is the correct one. The form of the claws and feet 

 indicate a more arboreal habit than that possessed by Embemagra, and the coloration, 

 too, as well as the shape of the bill, conforms rather to Buarremon. 



The bill has the culmen nearly straight, there is a lateral ridge on either side run- 

 ning from the nostril, which itself is pointed anteriorly and has a membrane along its 

 upper edge ; the tomia of the mandible is slightly angular, the anterior portion being 

 nearly straight, with a perceptible notch near the extremity. The feet are rather 

 slender, the middle toe and claw being about equal to the tarsus ; the claws themselves 

 are short and strongly curved ; the wings are much rounded, the third quill is slightly 

 longer than the second and fourth, the first falling half an inch short of the point of 

 the wing ; the tail is rather long, and the feathers narrow and pointed. 



1. Atlapetes pileatus. 



Atlapetespileatus, Wagl. Isis, 1831, p. 526' ; Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 486=^; Scl. P. Z. S. 1858, p. 304' ; 

 1859, p. 380 ^ Sumichrast, Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. i. p. 551 ^ 



Supra fusoo-olivaceus, pileo toto oastaneo, capitis et eervicis lateribus cinereis ; loris, oculorum ambitu et regione 

 parotica nigricantioribus ; subtus flavus, hypochrondriis oleagineo-fuscis ; rostri maxilla nigricante, man- 

 dibula et pedibus corylinis. Long, tota 5-8, alae 2-5, caudle 2-8, rostri a rictu 0-5, tarsi 0-9. (Descr. 

 maris ex Totontepeque, Mexico merid. Mus. nostr.) 



Hob. Mexico^ ^, La Parada^, State of Oaxaca* (JBoucard), alpine region of Vera Cruz 

 {Sumichrast ^). 



Sumichrast tells us ® that this species belongs exclusively to the alpine region, where 

 it inhabits the forests of pines and oaks, having the same range of altitude as Junco 

 cinereus, that is, between 6500 and 11,500 feet above the sea. It was first described 

 by Wagler as long ago as 1831, in his paper on Mexican animals published in the ' Isis ' 

 for that year, and it has since been sent sparingly by collectors who have worked in the 

 Mexican highlands. Its range seems limited to the higher mountain-ranges of Southern 

 Mexico. 



PIPILO. 



Pipilo, Vieillot, Analyse, p. 33 (1816) ; Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N, Am. B. ii. p. 104 ; Coues, Key 

 N. Am. B. ed. 2, p. 395. 



The members of this genus fall naturally into two sections, which Dr. Coues calls 

 the black and the brown species— the former represented in our fauna by P. maculatus 

 and its allies, the plumage of which is to some extent black; of the latter, P.fmcus 

 is the typical form. To these a third group is added, of which P. chlorurm is the sole 

 representative ; but this differs widely from the other Pipilones, and, in our opinion, is 



