LAZULI FINCH. 
317 
therefore considerably advanced towards perfect plumage. All 
the primaries are pure white on the outer web towards the 
base, thus constituting, in the most obvious manner, that white 
spot beyond the wing-coverts, assigned by Say as a good dis- 
criminating mark between this species and the preceding. The 
fact we have related diminishes the value of this character, 
which is nevertheless a very good one ; but as many other dis- 
tinctions are observable, we need not rely exclusively upon it. 
The deviation we have here mentioned is the 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 FRINGILLA AMCENA — Plate VI. Fig. 5. 
Emberiza amoena, Say, in Long's Expedition to the Rochy Mountains, ii. p. 47. — 
N Philadelphia Museum, No. 5919. 
SPIZA AMfflVA.— B onaparte.* 
Fringilla, (subgen. Spiza,) Bonap» Synop, p. 106. 
The genus Emberiza^ though very natural, and distinguish- 
ed by well marked characters, has, notwithstanding these ad- 
vantages, been often misunderstood; and authors, without 
* In tbe 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 Fringillidce, 
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 re- 
stricted. Those which form the second section run much more into the Embe- 
riza, and although it may “ form the passage to the buntings,” it is of sufficient 
importance to constitute a small suh-group.—AEtn. 
