INTRODUCTION. 



Mniotiltince, making them form the transition between the Finches 

 and that group. For it cannot be denied that it is extremely diffi- 

 cult to draw a line and say exactly where the Tanagers end and the 

 Wood- warblers begin. Take for instance the two forms Nemosia and 

 Trichas : how difficult it is to say positively whether certain birds are 

 more naturally to be placed in one of these genera or the other ! 

 Some of the Chlorospingi again are so much more like Mniotiltines 

 than Tanagrines at first sight, that the most experienced ornitholo- 

 gist, unless accurately acquainted with these forms, would be quite as 

 likely to refer them to the former. But though we cannot have a 

 perfectly natural arrangement, it is important to adopt the most 

 natural, and I am decidedly of opinion that on the whole the most 

 unobjectionable position for the Tanagers is to rank them simply 

 as a distinct subdivision of the great family FringilUdce. 



Commencing then the subfamily Tanagrines with the most Finch- 

 like form — Pitylus — we find birds so closely allied to Goniaphcea, 

 Hedymeles, Cardinalis and other genera of the American Cocco- 

 thraustines, as to make us hesitate at first sight as to which series 

 they would most naturally fall into. The transition, however, from 

 the section of the Pityli, which has obtained the subgeneric name 

 Caryothraustes, to the next genus Orchesticus, and so on to the 

 mucli more decided form Saltator, is easy, and assists to incline us 

 to retain the Pityli vi'ithm the subfamily of Tanagrines. Leading 

 off from Oi'chesticus is perhaps as good a situation as any for the 

 somewhat abnormal bird Biucopis fasciata, and a second so-called 

 species of the genus, still more troublesome to arrange in a satisfac- 

 tory way. The genus Saltator is numerous in species and strongly 

 marked in characters, the members of this group being readily 

 distinguishable from all other birds, as well by their structure as by 

 the peculiar style of plumage which pervades them. This indeed 

 is carried to such an extent that the Saltatores are very liable to be 

 confounded together, and from the insufficient descriptions given by 

 too many writers, it is a task of no small difficulty to recognize the 

 species, which appear to exceed twenty in number. Near Saltator 

 comes the remarkable parrot-green Psittospisa, an isolated type ; 

 and, leading on towards Cissopis, the elegant Lamprospiza, another 

 genus of a single species. In Arremon, and its scarcely separable 

 allv Buarremon, we have again a great development of specific 



