112 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 
merely upon the assertion of travellers, but on a pecu- 
liarity of structure: the margin of the upper mandible is so 
much sinuated as frequently to produce on each side an 
absolute festoon, like that seen in the typical tanagers, 
and which is obviously intended to break in pieces hard 
coleopterous insects. As we have elsewhere* entered into 
many details regarding the subgenera of Floceus, the 
reader must he content with a hasty glance. The typi- 
cal species are the largest, and have the longest bills. 
In Euplectes, we have some birds of the most brilliant 
scarlet and black plumage, remarkable also for the great 
size and slenderness of their 
feet. Vidua presents us with 
those elegant finches peculiar 
to Western Africa, the males 
of which, in the breeding 
season, are ornamented with 
tails of an extraordinary size 
and structure, as in Vidua phw- 
nicoptera Sw. (/(/.l6l.). Can 
this group represent the Para- 
diseadcB ? We confess such was 
once our opinion ; and yet we 
cannot discover how they can 
be removeil from the situation 
we here assign them, so as to 
bring them in as the tenuiros- 
tral type of the Coccothraus- 
tinee, — a rank we have, for the 
present, assigned to Carduelis. 
Leaving the genus Ploccus, of which the foregoing 
are the most prominent forms, we come to the Ame- 
rican group of Tiaris, a small assemblage of pretty 
little birds, most of which, as the name implies, are 
crowned with crests. All the species appear peculiar to 
America ; some show an affinity to Ploceus, others to 
the small tanagers (Nemosia), while two or three from 
Brazil closely resemble the goldfinches. Thus conducted 
♦ Birds of Western Africa, i. p. 158. 
