TANAGERS. 541 



moment against the mossy bole to pipe his little strain or look up the exact wherea- 

 bouts of some suspected insect prize. 



" This warbler usually seeks its food low down among thickets, moss-grown logs, 

 or floating debris, and always about water. Sometimes it ascends tree-trunks for a 

 little way, like the black-and-white creeper, winding about with the same peculiar 

 motion. When seen among the upper branches, where it often goes to plume its 

 feathers and sing in the warm sunshine, it almost invariably sits nearly motionless. 

 Its flight is much like that of the water-thrush (either species), and is remarkably 

 swift, firm, and decided. When crossing a, broad stream it is slightly undulating, 

 though always direct. Its food consists of insects, generally of such spiders and 

 beetles as are found about water. Audubon positively asserts that he has discovered 

 minute molluscous animals and small land-snails in their stomachs." 



Again, the Mniotiltidse seem to grade so insensibly into the TANAGRID^E that it 

 will be difficult to uphold the family distinction, unless, perhaps, the two groups be 

 defined and limited, and the line between them drawn in a manner quite different 

 from the present practice of ornithologists. But even if a better limitation could be 

 found, their intimate relationship is nevertheless a certainty. The tanagers are the 

 first of the true so-called Conirostres, which are characterized by a more massive 

 development of the bones of the face and an early ossification of its component parts 

 d minor t} ie embryonic stage. The tanagers have not reached any high degree in that 

 line of specialization, though, as a general rule, their bills are pretty strong and 

 conical. 



The tanagers form as characteristic a feature of the Neotropical region as do the 

 ant-birds and the humming-birds, though, like the latter, a few species go far north in 

 order to breed, so that this tropical family also contributes some of the most inter- 

 esting members of our North American fauna. But the very fact that the North 

 American tanagers are only five species, belonging to one genus (Piranga), while the 

 total number of tanagers known is not far from three hundred and fifty, shows very 

 plainly that this family is not truly indigenous in the Nearctic. The tanagers are not 

 numerous in the West Indies, but some of the genera are peculiar, for instance, the 

 beautiful Spindalis, of which a new species has recently been described by Mr. Ridg- 

 way from the island of Cozumel on the coast of Yucatan. The chief headquarters of 

 the tanagers is the forest region of South America east of the Andes, and here they 

 are found in all their rich splendor of color, hardly surpassed even by the humming- 

 birds or parrots. But while thus highly attractive on account of their coloration, 

 they offer none of these extraordinary ornaments consisting of marvellously formed 

 tufts, elongation of tail or wing feathers, oddly curved beaks, etc. Nor is there any- 

 thing very characteristic, novel, or wonderful in their habits, so far as we know them. 

 Their skill as nest-builders is not extraordinary, nor are any of them particularly 

 prominent as songsters. Their chief attraction is their gorgeous colors, which are not 

 distributed after any special style, all possible combinations being found within the 

 limits of this family. There is, of course, considerable diversity in the habits of the 

 different forms, but we must refrain from going into detail beyond quoting the follow- 

 ing note by Mr. H. W". Bates in regard to two common species, which we insert because 

 it shows us tanagers under an aspect quite different from what we are accustomed to 

 here in the north : " Numbers of tanagers frequented the fruit and other trees in our 

 gardens [near Para]. The two principal kinds which attracted our attention were the 

 Rha.mphocffilus jacapa and the Tanagra episcopus. The females of both are dull in 



