INTRODUCTION. XI 



forms, and much resemblance in style of colouring among them. 

 The San-Domingan bird, miscalled Phcenicophilus, according to the 

 weighty testimony of M. Salle, is an Ari'emon with the bill elongated 

 and tail shortened and squared ; and a second ally of this genus is the 

 curious form which I have denominated Oreothraupis, peculiar to the 

 Andes of Ecuador. Chlorospingns, a tenuirostral development of 

 Arremon, and Pyrrhocoina, with its single species, lead on clearly to 

 Nemosia, and serve to connect what may be called the Fringillacean 

 Tanagers — allowed by nearly all writers to be FringillidcB — with Ne- 

 mosia and the true Tanagers, the more typical section of the group. 

 Entering then the true Tanagers {qucB ad Mniotiltinas magis 

 spectant) by Nemosia, we pass by an easy transition into Tachy- 

 phonus, a well-defined group, of which the males are always clothed 

 in black, and the females in a modest brown. Two abnormal de- 

 velopments springing from Tanagra are TricJiothraupis and Euco- 

 metis on one side, both presenting some external similarities to birds 

 belonging to a very different family — the Tyrannidtz — and Cyps- 

 nagra, with its somewhat swallow-like appearance, on the other. 

 More closely allied to Tachyphonus than either of these is Lanio, 

 with its three species, where we have the same striking contrast be- 

 tween males and females as in Tachyphorms, and the most strongly- 

 toothed form of bill met with in the group, reminding us, as its 

 name is intended to do, of the Laniidce. Phcenicoth-aupis is clearly 

 intermediate in form between these birds and the Pijrangce, though 

 in its colouring rather more approaching the latter group. Lam- 

 protes with its brilliant subgenus, Sericossypha, and Orthogonys 

 seem to be best placed as adjuncts to Pyranga, presenting much 

 resemblance to one another in some points of their structure. From 

 the numerous PyrangcB, where the males are red and the females 

 yellow, we pass to Ramphocelus, where the corresponding colours 

 are scarlet or dark purple and brown. This is also a genus of 

 many species, but of habits very different from the former ; the 

 Ramphoceli, like the Tachyphoni, living in the low bushes, while the 

 Pyrangcs resort to the higher trees of the forest. There is somewhat 

 of an interval between Uamphocelus and Spindalis, a curious little 

 group peculiar to the West India Islands ; from which however we 

 pass easily to Tanagra, and its closely allied forms, Bubusia, Compso- 

 coma and Buthraupis. It is perhaps questionable indeed, whether 



