214 LAZULI FINCH. 
ceding. The fact we have related diminishes the value of 
this character, which is nevertheless a very good one; but as 
many other distinctions are observable, we need not rely 
exclusively upon it. The deviation we have here mentioned 
isthe more remarkable, as. the greater number of species allied 
to this bird have that spot, either white or yellow. 
Since writing the above, I obtained, from one of the large 
flocks in which these birds congregate in the autumn, several 
specimens of both sexes, more or less distinguished by the 
marking above stated as peculiar to the variety. 
LAZULI FINCH. (Pringilla amena.) 
PLATE VI.—Fize. 5. 
Emberiza amoena, Say, in Long’s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, ti. p. 47.— 
Philadelphia Museum, No. 5919. 
SPIZA AM(@NA.—BONAPARTE.* 
Fringilla (subgen. Spiza), Bonap. Synop. p. 106. 
Tne genus Hmberiza, though very natural, and distinguished 
by well-marked characters, has, notwithstanding these ad- 
vantages, been often misunderstood; and authors, without 
consulting the boundaries assigned to it by themselves, have 
recorded a copious list of species, whilst in nature its limits 
are much restricted. We are not therefore surprised that so 
acute a zoologist as Say should have arranged his bird in that 
genus, particularly as it is more closely allied to Hmberza than 
many of those, not only of Wilson, but even of Linné and 
Latham. 
* In the Prince of Musignano’s “ Synopsis of the Birds of the United 
States,” in the “Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History, New York,” 
he has instituted a subgenus under the name of Spiza, to contain a portion 
of the Fringillide, dividing it into two sections. The first contains our 
present bird, with the F. cyanea and ciris of Wilson, and to which we 
think the subgenus should be restricted. Those which form the second 
section run much more into the Hmberize, and although it may “form 
the passage to the buntings,” it is of sufficient importance to constitute a 
small swb-group.— Ep. 


