INSESSORES. 



139 



feathers weak. Head above from the base of the lower mandible 

 and upper tail-coverts, scarlet ; throat and breast blue, very deep 

 on the former, lighter on the latter; occiput, body above, wing- 

 coverts, arid abdomen, light-green, tinged with bluish on the latter ; 

 quills brownish-blacky with their external edges green ; tail-feathers 

 dark-brown, edged with brownish-red ; bill and legs dark ; irides 

 brown. 



Dimensions. — Total length (of skin, sex unknown), four inches; 

 wing, two and one-fourth inches ; tail, one and one-fourth inches. 

 "Extent of wings, seven and three-eighths inches" (Peale). 



Hab.— Venua Levu, Feejee Islands. Specimen in Nat. Mus. 

 Washington. 



Another beautiful little species, smaller than the preceding, but 

 strictly of the same generic characters. Specimens in the collection 

 of the Expedition are in excellent plumage, and evidently fairly repre- 

 sent the species. 



Mr, Peale says of this bird : 



" Found in scattered flocks about Casuarina trees, in an open dry 

 country, in the island of Venua Levu, one of the Feejees. It was 

 frequently on the ground, but what it was feeding on we were unable 

 to determine. Its common note is shrill and harsh, but occasionally 

 one was heard to warble very sweetly." 



The name given by Mr. Peale to this bird having been preoccupied 

 by another species of the same genus, ErytJirura prasina (Sparrmann), 

 originally described as Loxia pmsiiia (the same as Fringilla sphenura, 

 Temm.), it became necessary to apply another, which was done in 

 compliment to Mr. Peale, by Dr. Gustav Hartlaub, of the City of 

 Bremen, one of the most accomplished Ornithologists of Europe. 



The figure in our plate is of the size of life. 



26. Genus PIPILO, Vieill. Analyse, p. 32 (1816). 

 1. PiPILO OREGONA, Bell. 

 Pipilo oregona, Bell, Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. N. Y. V, p. 6 (1848). 



Aud. B. of Am. Plate CCCXCIV; oct. ed. Ill, Plate CXCIV. 



