120 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 
are the internal types of form which appear to constitute 
some of the subgenera of Tanagra and Pkoenisoma : 
both, collectively, comprehend all the largest of the 
tanagers ; and they ate, in general, so well marked with 
nearly all the characters of the family, that the expe- 
rienced ornithologist will be at no great loss to distin- 
guish them. We shall now proceed to the remaining 
groups. 
(134.) The aberrant Tanagrin.®, according to our 
present views, are comprised in the genera Nemosia, 
Aghaa, and Pipillo: these we shall shortly notice. It 
seems evident that Leucnpggia is the most aberrant form 
among the Phcenisonue : its unusually strong feet, with 
its short, entire, and compressed bill, leave us in no 
doubt that it is of the rasorial type ; but' whether it 
enters among the last-mentioned genera, or into the first 
of the aberrant groups, that is, Nemosia, is a matter 
of much uncertainty. The nearest affinity to this, in the 
genus we have just quitted, appears to be shown by Ta- 
chyphnrms auricapUlus* ; while, on the other side, this 
bird seems to be equally related to Nemosia {fig. ] 67 . b). 
This genus, — which, from its wings being longer, or at 
least more pointed than in any others, we take to be a fis- 
sirostral type, — is composed of very small slender-bodied 
birds, so much resembling warblers, that they have been 
classed as such by all writers; and even M. VieiUot, who 
has himself proposed the genus, has actually described 
the most typical species under the name of Sylvia rupi- 
capilla.i They are distinctly separated, however, from 
that family, by the thickness of their under mandible 
which is fully as stout as that of the upper : the feet 
are small, and rather short ; and the wings, which reach 
to half the length of the tail, have the first and second 
quills but very slightly abbreviated. These appear to 
be the typical distinctions ; but as it is by this genus 
that the tanagers, to aU appearance, pass into the haw- 
» The Tanagra auricapilla of prince Maximilian, and the T. Suchii of 
our former Monograph. 
+ La Vauvettc a tele rousse. Sylvia nificapUla Gal. des Oiseaux. The 
figure represents the legs double the length they are in nature. 
