448 
FEMALE INDIGO FINCH. 
therefore necessarily betrayed into numerous errors, although 
he at the same time perceived and corrected many others of 
his predecessor. We shall not enumerate the nominal species 
authorized by their works in relation to the present bird, since 
they may be ascertained by consulting our list of synonyms. 
On comparing this list with that furnished by Wilson, it will 
be seen that the latter is very incomplete. Indeed, as regards 
synonymy, Wilson’s work is not a little deficient ; notwith- 
standing which, however, it will be perpetuated as a monu- 
ment of original and faithful observation of nature, when piles 
of pedantic compilations shall be forgotten. 
We refer our readers entirely to Wilson for the history of 
this very social little bird, only reserving to ourselves the task 
of assigning its true place in the system. As we have already 
'mentioned in our ‘‘ Observations,” he was the first who placed 
it in the genus Fringilla^ (to which it properly belongs,) after 
it had been transferred from Tanagra to Emheriza by former 
writers, some of whom had even described it under both in one 
and the same work. But although Wilson referred this bird 
to its proper genus, yet he unaccountably permitted its closely 
allied species, the Fringilla ciris, to retain its station in Em- 
beriza^ being under the erroneous impression that a large bill 
was characteristic of that genus. This mistake, however, is 
excusable when we consider that almost all the North Ameri- 
can birds which he found placed in it, through the negligence 
or ignorance of his predecessors, are in fact distinguished by 
large bills. 
The transfer of this species to the genus Fringilla^ renders 
a change necessary in the name of Loxia cyanea of Linne, an 
African bird, now a Fringilla of the subgenus Coccothraustes, 
The American bird belongs to Spiza, and, together with the 
Fringilla ciris and the beautiful Fringilla amoena^ it may form 
a peculiar group, allied to Fringilla^ Emheriza^ and Tanagra^ 
but manifestly nearest the former. 
The adult male, in full plumage, having been described by 
Wilson, may be omitted here. The female measures four 
