The preceding diagnosis is intended to embrace the brightly colored passerine birds of North America, different in general appearance from the common Sparrows. It is difficult to draw the line with perfect strictness, so as to separate the species from those of the preceding group, but the bill is always more curved, as well as larger, and the colors are brighter. They resemble quite closely, at a superficial glance, the _Coccothraustinæ_, but may be readily distinguished by absence of the projecting tufts surrounding the base of the upper mandible, shorter, more rounded wings, and longer tarsi. The genera may be most conveniently arranged as follows:— A. Wings decidedly longer than the tail. Eggs plain blue or white, unspotted. _a._ Feet very stout, reaching nearly to the end of the tail. Species terrestrial. Calamospiza. Bill moderate, the commissure with a deep angle posteriorly and prominent lobe behind it; anteriorly nearly straight; commissure of lower mandible with a prominent angle. Outer toe longer than the inner, both nearly as long as the posterior. Outer four primaries about equal, and abruptly longer than the rest. Tertials nearly equal to primaries. Tail-feathers broad at tips. Color: black with white spot on wing in ♂, brownish streaks in ♀. Nest on or near ground; eggs plain pale blue. Euspiza. Bill weaker, the commissure with a more shallow angle, and much less prominent sinuation behind it; anteriorly distinctly sinuated. Outer toe shorter than inner, both much shorter than the posterior one. First primary longest, the rest successively shorter. Tertials but little longer than secondaries. Tail-feathers attenuated at tips. Color: back brown streaked with black; throat white; jugulum yellow or ashy; with or without black spot on fore neck. A yellow or white superciliary stripe. Nest on or near ground; eggs plain pale blue. _b._ Feet weaker, scarcely reaching beyond lower tail-coverts; species arboreal. _a. Size large (wing more than 3.50 inches)._ Hedymeles. Upper mandible much swollen laterally. Colors: no blue; upper parts conspicuously different from the lower. Wings and tail with white patches; axillars and lining of wing yellow or red. Female streaked. Nest in a tree or bush; eggs greenish, thickly spotted. Guiraca. Upper mandible flat laterally. Colors: ♂ deep blue, with two rufous bands on wings; no white patches on wings or tail; axillars and lining of wing blue; ♀ olive-brown without streaks. Nest in a bush; eggs plain bluish-white. _b. Size very small (wing less than 3.00 inches)._