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BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 405
PHRYGILUS FRUTICETI FRUTICETI (Kittlitz)
Fringilla fruticeti Kittlitz, Kupf. Naturg. Vog., 1832, p. 18, pi. 23, fig. 1.
(Coast near Valparaiso, Chile.)
In a recent partial review of Phi^ygilus, Lowe" has proposed to
divide the genus as ordinarily taken into four groups, basing his
action apparently mainly on color pattern. (He does not include
in his study P. alaudinus and its allies, which have been placed by
some in a fifth segregation.) After a careful study of the entire
group, and a consideration of the structural characters of the different
sj)ecies, I am led to follow a somewhat different course. The
two speqies melanodera and xanthograviina differ from all others involved
in the greatly exaggerated wing tip, where the distance from
the longest secondaries to the tip of the longest primaries is one-
third of the length of the wing, the ninth (outermost) primary is
equal to or slightly longer than the eighth, and the other primaries
decrease regularly in length to the first. (In true Phrygilus the
wing tip is decidedly more rounded.) In addition the bill is more
conical, more sharplj'^ pointed, a condition that reaches its maximum
in xanthogrammia. These two species may be separated as the genus
Melanodera Bonaparte.^ (I am uncertain as to the relationships of
Rowettia to this group, as I have not seen specimens.)
All of the remaining species must be included in the genus
Phrygilus^ since there are no structural characters whereby groups
of the species involved may be separated definitely from one an-
other. The divisions that have been proposed may be considered
one by one. The type of the supposed genus Rhopospina^^ Phrygilus
fruticeti (Kittlitz), has the wing formula, wing tip, tarsal and
bill structure so similar to that of Phrygilus gayi (Eydoux and
Gervais) that the two may not be separated excej^t on the basis
of color. Phinjgilus alaudinus (Kittlitz), which has been segregated
as the type of Corydospiza Sundevall,^° has the inner secondaries
almost as long as the primaries, a character shared by Phrygilus
carhonarius (d'Orbigny and Lafresnaye), which from color is placed
by Lowe in Rhopospina. The wing tip is gradually lengthened
in P. plehejus Cabanis, and P. ocularis Sclater, until it approximates
the length found in P. gayi and its allies. Corydospiza may
be used as a subgenus to include the four species mentioned in which
the wing tip is shorter than the culmen from base, as distinguished
from a subgenus Phrygilus {verus), in which the Aving tip is
longer than the culmen. Transition between the two is so gradual
f Ibis, 192.3, pp. 513-519.
' Consp. Gen. Av., vol. 1, 1850, p. 470. Type, Emberiza melanodera Quoy and
Gaimard.
» Cabanis, Mus. Hein., pt. 1, April, 1851, p. 135.
i»Av. Tent., 1872, p. 33.