212 Some Interesting Birds. 



cent, hues of gorgeous tropical colours, and their ijluraa<g<^ 

 Mith a surface like silk or satin. 



Not the least beautiful, if one of the most freely im- 

 poried and best known, is the subject of Mr. Willford's fine 

 {l)hotograph. A ^photograph, however, can never do justice 

 to a Tanager, for it is almost impossible to get good colour 

 values, or to indicate fully even the beautiful Contrasts of 

 light and shade in an unco loured plate. The photograph, how- 

 ever, is so good that few would fail 'to recognise the bird, 

 I think, even if it were placed before one without any title, 

 that those who failed to recognise the species would declare 

 it to be a Tanager. 



A Tanager is a fruit -eating Fmch, with a tooth at the 

 ,tip of the beak, hence Dr. Sclater's term of them-, dentirostral 

 Finches; this tooth enables them to scoop out quite huge 

 mou^thfuls of fruit, as every observer must have noted who 

 has kept or had under study this magnificent group. 



The Superb Tanager well earns the title, gloriously 

 coloured, which has been given it, and, though so frequently 

 and regularly imported, very little of its wild life has been 

 reported by scientific collectors. It is a native of Pernambuco. 

 Description : Top of head, sides of face and neck glittering emerald 

 green, with a golden sheen ; the upper back rich velvety bluish-black ; lower 

 back rump and upper tail-coverts rich cadmium-yellow ; wings black, with 

 purplish-blue margins ; least wing coverts (butts), emerald green ; lesser 

 wing coverts deep blue, outer webs of secondaries margined with golden- 

 orange ; the tail is black with the basal portion of the outer webs margined 

 with purplish-blue ; chin and throat velvety black ; upper breast silvery 

 lavender passing into violet, then merging into deep purplish-blue on the 

 abdomen and under tail-coverts ; beak and legs black ; iris brown : Total 

 length 51 inches. 



The female is similar to the male, but is slightly less brilliant. 



The Superb Tanager is well known to almost every 

 bird -lover in this country — there are few bird shows at which 

 he does not compete, and he makes such an ideal cage bird, 

 that with the keepers of this group he may almost be called 

 the common bird. He soon becomes familiar and comes to 

 the front with cheerful chirp and Hick of tail, with an expres- 

 sion, commonly interpreted as "What is it, fruit or meal- 

 worms?" Very soon he learns to take mealworms from the 

 hand and like the Fruitsuckers, has the habit of holding one in his 

 beak, singing his song, flitting to and fro about the cage,^ 



