The brilliant group of Tanagers play an important role in this 

 peculiar ornithology, as many as ninety species occurring in Bogota 

 collections : and no genus among them seems better developed here 

 than Calliste, of which sixteen or seventeen different species are fre- 

 quently to be met with in the importations of birdskins from this 

 quarter. 



As is the case with the large majority of the Passeres of these 

 regions, not one of these Callistce is specifically identical with the 

 corresponding bird of the same genus found on the eastern coast of 

 the continent ; although the present species, it must be allowed, is 

 very closely allied to the Calliste tatao of Cayenne, and by some 

 naturalists, perhaps, would be treated only as a local variety of that 

 bird. But, as it may always be distinguished from the true tatao 

 by seemingly invariable differences, although these are minute, I 

 think that it has a fair claim to a distinct specific title, many other 

 birds now generally recognised as valid species resting on characters 

 not of greater importance. 



The Calliste coelicolor is always rather larger in size and longer in 

 the wing than the tatao, and is, if possible, still brighter in its 

 colouring. The curious scaly green feathers of the head extend far- 

 ther forwards over the front (leaving merely a very narrow edging 

 of black close to the bill), and farther backwards towards the nape 

 than in the older species, and the purple below is confined to the 

 throat, not passing over the upper breast, as in that bird. In the 

 present species also the smaller wing-coverts are nearly wholly tha- 

 lassine blue, like the belly, having only a narrow lower margin of 

 purple. In the other bird the purple colouring occupies more space, 

 and the thalassine blue covers merely the bend of the wing. 



I first pointed out these differences, indicating them as likely to 

 form grounds for the specific separation of the New Grenadian bird, 

 and in such case proposing for it the name 'coelicolor,'' in a Synopsis 

 of the genus Calhste, written in Sir William Jardine's ' Contributions 

 to Ornithology' for 1851. Prince Bonaparte, in his "Note sur les 

 Taugaras," published about the same time in the Revue Zoologique, 

 also notices this bird as a variety of the ' tatao.' Since that period 

 I have seen a considerable number of examples of it, and am further 

 convinced of its claims to be considered as an independent species. 



