BIRDS—FRINGILLIDAE—CYANOSPIZA. 
501 
the upper. The three first quills are considerably graduated, the second a little longer than 
the sixth, the first about equal to the secondaries. The wing is but little longer than the tail. 
The hind claw is not longer than the middle anterior, but a little stouter. The tail feathers are 
as in Guiraca. Bonaparte places this species under Cyanoloxia or Guiraca, and it may be 
entitled to generic separation both from this and Cyanospiza, but I prefer retaining it with 
the latter, which it connects with Guiraca. 
The following sketch may serve to distinguish the species of Cyanospiza , as far as color is 
concerned: 
Dark dull indigo blue ; brightest on the forehead, rump, and elbow.... C. parellina. 
Rump, forehead, and beneath towards the tail, blue. Back part of crown, back, throat, 
and breast, reddish. Forehead and lores, black.... ....C. versicolor. 
Head and neck (except below) blue; back green; rump and beneath, red..... C. ciris. 
Bright ultramarine blue, darkest on head and belly....... C. cyanea. 
Head and neck all round, and back blue ; breast rusty ; belly white ; a white band on 
the wing..................... C. amoena. 
It is with much reluctance that I find it necessary to abandon the name of Spiza for this 
group, after it had been so well established by general consent, but a strict adherence to the 
rules of ornithological systematists renders this necessary. The usual date given for Spiza , 
Bonaparte, is 1828, as published in the Annals of the New York Lyceum, with the Emberiza 
amoena of Say as type. His first mention of it, however, is in his observations on the nomen¬ 
clature of Wilson’s ornithology, published in Vol. IV, I, August, 1824, Journal Philadelphia 
Academy of Natural Sciences, under the head of Emberiza americana, Grnelin, No. 85. Here he 
states that “the americana (Euspiza americana of 1838) is certainly not an Emberiza , and is 
evidently congeneric with some of Wilson’s Fringillae ; such as F. melodia, savanna, socialis, 
passerina, &c. For these birds I was about to propose the adoption of a new genus under the 
name of Spiza, (Greek appellation of the Fringilla coelebs,) intermediate between Fringilla 
and Emberiza, but much more closely allied to the former. After an attentive examination of 
the intermediate species, I shall, however, consider it a sub-genus under Fringilla.” * * * 
“The bird under consideration must, according to this innovation, be ranged under the sub¬ 
genus Spiza , and be called Fringilla americana.” 
None of the species of modern Spiza are mentioned on this page. On a subsequent one, No. 
90, speaking of Emberiza ciris, he says: “This bird and the one that Wilson so accurately 
called Fringilla cyanea belong not only to the same genus, but are very closely allied, and may 
be placed under the sub-genus Spiza, if they will not constitute a small one of themselves.” 
In the American Ornithology, vol. I, 1825, 61, in the article on Fringilla amoena, after 
referring to his remarks on the nomenclature of Wilson’s Ornithology, published the previous 
year, Bonaparte says: “As a species it ( Fringilla amoena ) is more intimately allied to Fringilla 
ciris and F. cyanea , which I stated in that paper (observations on Wilson) to differ so much 
from their congeners, (i. e., the sub-genus Spiza,) particularly in the greater curvature of the 
upper mandible, as to deserve perhaps a separation into a small sub-genus by themselves, (i. e., 
distinct from Spiza)) this would unite Fringilla to Tanagra , as Spiza, on the other hand, shows 
its transition to Emberiza.” 
I do not know what species Vieillot gives as type for his Passerina in “ Analyse,” but in the 
Nouv. Diet, XXV, 1811, 3, the first species mentioned is P. oryzivora ( Dolichonyx). 
For these reasons, whatever may be the propriety of restoring the name of Spiza to Euspiza , 
