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Show 296 AVES. E . P'' th yorm·s , Pall .,• Naum · 104, 3. (The Pine Bunting.) The throat, an d a s t reak On the side of the he.a d, red chesnut . colour. M M ey·e r d1' s t'm gu1·.s hes those buntings wh1ch have thef nail of the thum·b e1 o ngat e d l1'k e that of the Lark, by the name o PLEOTRO· PHANES· Such is E m b. m·v az M· , L.., Bruant de neige; Enl. 511; Naum. • 106 •a nd 107, (The Snow Bunting.) Known _by a b~oad, long1tudmal, white band on the wing. A northern b1rd, wh1ch becomes nearly all white in winter.(1) To this we should add, }ring. laponica, Gm. or calcarata, Pall. Fr. Tr. III, pl .. 1' I; Grand Montain of Buff.; Naum. 108. (The Lapland Buntmg.) . Spotted with black, on a fawn coloured ground, th~ throat and upper part of the breast of the male, black. Inhab1ts the sa~e countries as the preceding, is sometimes, but rarely, seen m France during the winter. FRINGILLA, Lin. ' 1'h e s p arrows have a conical beak, more or less thick at ba.s e; budt its commissure is not angular. They feed generally on gram, an are for the most part voracious and noxious. We subdivide them as follows: PLooEus, Cuv.(2) The Weavers are provided with such a large beak, that they have been partly classed with the Cassici; its straight commissure dis· tinguishes them from the latter. The upper mandible is moreover slightly convex. They are found in both worlds, and m?st oftho~e in the eastern continent are very skilful in the constructiOn of thm nest, which they form of intertwined blades of grass, from which circumstance they receive their name. Such is Loxia philippina, L.; Toucnam-Courvi des Philippines; ~oL 135. Yellow, spotted with brown; black throat. Its nest, wh~ch is a suspended sphere, is pierced by a vertical canal, o~em~g underneath, which communicates with a cavity on the s1de 10 which the young ones are lodged.(3) ( 1) The Emb. montana, and the Emb. muatelina, are merely different states r/. the Snow Bunting. , (2) llMxeur, Weaver,-Vieill. has adopted this name and genus, pl. lxXIt~· N.H. The EMBERIZOIDES of Temm. have become the T.A.RDIVOLJ. ofSwaiDIOD, and the Emb. oryzivora forms the genus DoLICHONYX of the same naturalist. 'ngiil6 (3) Add, the Capmore, Buff. (Oriolustextor, Gm.), Enl. 375.and376;-:. bl, erythrocephala, Enl. 665; Vieill., Ois. ch., 28 ;-the pretended Tangara de 1111 PASSERINJE. 297 Some of them form a single mass of a great number of individual nests, which contains sever-al distinct apartments. Such is Lo~ia so cia, Lath.; P~ters. Voy. pl. xix. (The Republican.) An ohve brown; yellowish beneath; head and quills brown or- 1 blackish. Among those of the western continent, we may remark, Oriolus niger, Or. oryzivorus, Corvus surinamensia, Gm.; Maugeurde riz; Oassique noir, &c.; Enl. 534; Brown, Ill. X; Wils. III, xxi, 4, which, in immense flocks, devastates the fields of se\'eral of the warmer portions of America. Its colour is a changeable black, reflecting all the magnificent tints of burnished steel.( 1) ~t.ud. An. Mus. I,. p. 148, pl. x, or M.alimbe ltuppe, Vieill. Ois. ch. 42 and 43 ·the 'Malim?e orange, Id. 44 ;-Malimbe d gorge noir, Id. 45 ;-the Tiss. a front d:or, (Ploc. aurifrons, Tern., Col. 175, 176);-the Baglafecht (Lox. abyssinica);-the Ntlicou":i.(Lox: pensilis), ~onn. Voy. II, pl. cix;-the Worabee (Fring. abyssinica, ~m·)~ Vtetll. Ots. 28;-Fnng. erythrocepltala, Gm., Vieill. lb., 28. We might distingwsh the Ploc. alecto, Tern. Col., 446, which has an inflation at the base of the beak. (1) Nomenclators have not yet succeeded in putting in order the black birds of America more or less nearly allied to the Cassici, for the want of sufficiently detailed descriptions. We think it right to indicate the principal ones here and at the same time to point out such of their synonymes ns appear to be ti1e 'most ~!early ascertained. I. The Cassique noir a mantelet, as above. }· The bird mentioned above, well drawn, but painted without its reflected tints,. Enl. 534, and quoted under Oriolus niger. The Oriolus ludovicianus, Enl. 646, ts only an albino variety of the same. It is evidently the Co'rvus surinamensia, Brown, III, pl. x. The Little Choucas of Jamaica, Sloane, Jam. II, 299, pl. cclvii, I, quoted by Pennant as Gracula barita and as quiscala, is this same bird again. On the other hand, it is \mpossible to doubt that Latham had it before him when he described his Oriolua oryzivorus. 3; The .true Carouge noir, with purple changes, beak rather short, but very straight, gwen as a Tanager, Enl. 710, and ft·om which the Tan. bonariensis has been made; but this figure really represents the Oriolus minor. The fipo, 2 Enl 606 • • 0 ' • • IS gtven, but er1·oneously, for the female, which has a very different appearance. 4• A true Icterus of a deep black with violet reflections, sharp· pointed and some~ arcuated beak, whose tail is hollowed out like a boat. It is the Boat.tailed . le of Penn. and Latham, which both those gentlemen consider as synonymous ~~th the Gracula barita, and yet it certainly is the bird of Cates b. pl. l2, of which 1~· made his Gracr'la quiscala; but Catesby has given a bad drawing of tl1e beak. ~~.:· A black bird with violet and green reflections, somewhat cuneiform, ( etagee) 'and the beak of an Icterus, but more arcuate<! near tbe point, &c. :;,B. :he bird quoted frbm Wils., III, xxi, 4, is not a Ploceus. It is the Quutlef'Mcolor, Bonap., or the Gracula quiacala, L. .!J.m. Ed. VoL, I.-2 N |