How to Name the Birds 



89 



breeding to one resembling that of the female, which is worn until the 

 following spring when, by molt, the brighter plumage is regained, as with 

 our Scarlet Tanager. 



External Structure. — The typical 

 Tanager is a Finch with a somewhat 

 swollen bill, arched culmen, 'toothed ' 

 upper mandible and straight, not an- 

 gulated, commissure. To draw a hard 

 and fast line between the Finches and ^ 

 Sparrows, however, is impossible. Some i 

 systematists consider certain species s 

 Tanagers, while others regard them as § 

 Finches, but the members of the genus 

 Piranga may readily be known by the 

 characters of the bill above mentioned. 



Appearance and Habits. — Tanagers 

 are active, arboreal creatures and the 

 males, at least, are generally conspicu- o : 

 ous and easily observed. ^ 1 



Song. — Asa family, Tanagers can- s. ; 



o 



not be called musical. Many species ^ • 

 have feeble and others sharp, discordant 

 voices. Our Scarlet Tanager takes 



rather high rank among his kind as a j 

 singer, but, in my experience, the best 



singers of the genus are the members ; 



of the genus Euponia in which the : 



song, though weak, is very sweet and ; 



varied. \ 



H ■ 



Fa.mii.y 8. Swallows. IlirutiJiniJif. '!^ 



Range. — Swallows are found nearl\ ^ 

 throughout the world, New Zealand 

 alone of the larger land areas being 

 without a representation of the group. 

 Of the 80 -odd known species some 

 32 inhabit the western hemisphere I 

 where they range from (Greenland f 

 and Alaska to Patagonia, and ten of % 

 these occur in the United States. 



Nine species have been recorded 

 from east of the Mississippi, but two 



