‘ a eae vn 
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118 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRI Ss. Bes 
lead us to suspect that it forms the type of one of h 
principal divisions among the tanagers, or that i 
connects our genus Aglaia with Pipillo. On the first 
supposition, F’. Zena would constitute the passage from 
the true sparrows (Pyrgila) to the subgenus Tanagra 
proper ; while, by the second, Pipil/o would stand inter 
mediate between Aglaza and Tanagra, and thus consti- 
tute the rasorial genus of the whole subfamily. This — 
latter arrangement certainly appears to us the most 
likely to be the natural one, in which case, Ff. Zena ; 
will be merely a subgenus, either of Pipillo, or of 
Aglaia ; or, in other words, will connect the two. 
Neither can we, by any disposition we have yet made, 
discover the circular series of the types of form in the — 
genera Tanagra and Phenisoma, chiefly from ignorance 
of the real affinities of Arremon: but for this,—and 
supposing the tenuirostral types of these two genera to 
be undiscovered, — we feel some confidence in the series 
in which we have disposed the remaining groups. We 
take this opportunity of soliciting, from any of our 
ornithological readers, the use of a specimen of F. Zena, 
or of those few species which seem to possess the same 
form. ? 
(133.). The following arrangement of the tanagers, — 
under the foregoing difficulties, must therefore be leoked ~ 
upon for the present as provisional. We consider that 
affinity, at least, sufficiently strong to justify the belief — 
that these five genera form a circle “ more or le "i 
complete ;” the difficulty, as before stated, being how 
to connect Aglaia with Pipillo. In taking a slight re 
view of these genera, we shall begin with Tardivola, — 
whose absolute connection to Pitylus has been already — 
proved. We then proceed to the restricted group of 
Tanagra, where we have all those beautiful birds of — 
a cinereous blue colour, so many species of which we ~ 
