530 AVES— TANAGER. 



the leaves for worms and larvae. It is quite a familiar bird, and will suffer 

 a person to walk round the bush or thicket, where it is at work, without 

 betraying any signs of alarm, and when disturbed, uttering the notes tow-he, 

 repeatedly. At times, the male mounts a small tree, and chants his few 

 simple notes for an hour at a time. They are loud, but not unmusical. He 

 is fond of thickets near streams of water, and is found generally over the 

 United States. The nest is placed on the ground among the dry leaves, and 

 is large and substantial. He shows great affection for his young, and is 

 remarkable for the cunning with which he conceals his nest, sometimes 

 nearly covering it with dry grass. In Virginia he is called the bulfinch. 



This bird is eight inches and a half long ; of a black color above, and 

 white below. The eye changes in color ; the iris being sometimes white, 

 and often red. 



There are various others of the bunting genus, natives of the United 

 States, as the white-crowned bunting, the bay-winged bunting, the black- 

 throated bunting, Henslow's bunting. 



THE SCARLET TANAGEIU 



Is one of the most beautiful of American birds, having a plumage of the 

 richest scarlet, with wings of jet black. He is spread over the United States, 

 and is found even in Canada, and South America. He rarely approaches 



1 Tanagra rubra, Lin. The genus Tanagra has the bill short, strong, triangular al 

 the base, carinated, much compressed at the point, which is bent ; upper mandible longer 

 than the under, and notched; edges of the mandibles bent inwards; under mandible 

 straight, and somewhat gibbous toward the middle ; nostrils basal, lateral, rounded, partly 

 concealed by projecting feathers ; tarsus the length of the middle toe ; the external tuc 

 ioined it its base ; the internal free ; win?s with the second and third quills longest. 



