94 SCARLET T A NAGER. 



of the eye is of a cream color, the legs and feet light blue. The female 

 (now I believe for the first time figured) is green above and yellow 

 below; the wings and tail brownish black, edged with green. The young 

 birds, during their residence here the first season, continue nearly of the 

 same color with the female. In this circumstance we again recognise 

 the wise provision of the Deity, in thus clothing the female and the inex- 

 perienced young, in a garb so favorable for concealment among the foli- 

 age ; as the weakness of the one, and the frequent visits of the other to 

 her nest, would greatly endanger the safety of all. That the young 

 males do not receive their red plumage until the early part of the suc- 

 ceeding spring, I think highly probable, frbm the circumstance of fre- 

 quently finding their red feathers, at that season, intermixed with green 

 ones, and the wings also broadly edged with green. These facts render 

 it also probable that the old males regularly change their color, and 

 have a summer and winter dress ; but this, farther observations must 

 determine. 



There is in the Brazils a bird of the same genus with this, and very 

 much resembling it, so much so as to have been frequently confounded 

 with it by European writers. It is the Tanagra Brazilia of Turton ; 

 and though so like, is a yet very distinct species from the present, as I 

 liave myself had the opportunity of ascertaining, by examining two very 

 perfect specimens from Brazil, now in the possession of Mr. Peale, and 

 comparing them Avith this. The principal differences are these : the 

 plumage of the Brazilian is almost black at bottom, very deep scarlet at 

 the surface, and of an orange tint between ; ours is ash colored at bot- 

 tom, white in the middle, and bright scarlet at top. The tail of ours is 

 forked, that of the other cuneiform or rounded. The bill of our species 

 is more inflated, and of a greenish yellow color — the other's is black 

 above, and whitish below towards the base. The whole plumage of the 

 southern species is of a coarser, stiffer quality, particularly on the head. 

 The wings and tail, in both, are black. 



In the account which BufTon gives of the Scarlet Tanager, and Car- 

 dinal Grosbi-ak, there appears to be very great confusion, and many 

 mistakes ; to explain which it is necessary to observe, that Mr. Edwards 

 in his figure of the Scarlet Tanager, or Scarlet Sparrow as he calls it, 

 has given it a hanging crest, owing no doubt to the loose disordered 

 state of the plumage of the stuffed or dried skin from which he made his 

 drawing. Buffon has afterwards confounded the two together by apply- 

 injr many stories orijrinallv related of the Cardinal Grosbeak, to the 

 Scarlet Tanager ; and the following he gravely gives as his reason for 

 80 doing : " We may presume," says he, " that when travellers talk of 

 the warble of the Cardinal they mean the Scarlet Cardinal, for the other 

 Cardinal is of the genus of the Grosbeaks, consequently a silent bird."* 



* Buffon, vol. iv., p. 209. 



