CRIMSON-NECKED BULLFINCH. 203 
size, until, on the exterior one, it occupies half the total length 
of the feather, whilst its exterior web is white to the base. 
The female is very similar to the male, but the colours are 
duller, and the stripes on the head are not so decided; the 
auriculars, moreover, are yellowish brown. 
This species has the bill and feet precisely similar to those 
of Wilson’s black-throated bunting, and those other Pringille 
and supposed H’mberizce, of which I have constituted the sub- 
genus Spiza in my “ Observations on Wilson’s Ornithology.” 
It cannot be mistaken for any other species, being very peculiar 
in its markings and manners. 
CRIMSON-NECKED BULLFINCH. (Pyrrhula 
Srontalis.) 
PLATE VI.—Fic. 1, Mate; Fic. Z, FEMALE. 
Fringilla frontalis, Say, in Long’s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, ii. p. 40.— 
Philadelphia Museum, No. 6279, male ; No. 6277, female. 
ERVTHROSPIZA FRONTALIS.—BONAPARTE. 
Erythrospiza, Bonap. Oss. Sulla, 2d ed. Del Regn. Anim. Cuv. p. 80.—See note, 
vol. i. p. 121. 
Mucus confusion exists in the works of naturalists respecting 
those finches and bullfinches that are tinged with red; and, 
in fact, their great resemblance to each other, and their intri- 
cate synonymy, render them very difficult to elucidate. The 
only species in Wilson’s work with which the present may be 
confounded is the Fringilla purpurea, a bird closely related 
to ours, and for the first time well figured and permanently 
established by that author.* But several other allied species 
* He was rather precipitate in asserting the Fringilla rosea and Loxia 
erythrina to be identical with his bird, as they are actually two very 
distinct species, belonging to the genus Pyrrhula, and proper to the 
old continent, whilst the purpurea is a true Fringilla, and peculiar to 
America. To those who have not critically investigated the subject, it 
may appear somewhat inconsistent to state that the erythrina is not an 
inhabitant of this continent, when it is a well-known fact that many 
authors speak of it as an American bird. This apparent contradiction 
