344



Ptactical Bird-Keeping .— VII. I'anagers.


PRACTICAL BIRD-KEEPING.



VII. TANAGERS.


By S. M. Townsend.


To write an article on Tanagers! What a tremendous

task ! A bird lover with a ready pen could fill volumes, it is such

a vast subject, but mine is an unready pen and now when I wish

to start, I cannot think what to write about. Besides now that I

have kept Tanagers some years I am beginning to know how

much I still have to learn about them. It is strange that the

beginner, or the person who has never kept a Tanager, always

has more confidence ; I, for instance, started with a Superb and

Violet, and if I had parted with them at the end of a few months,

and never kept another Tanager, I should have been ready to

agree that they were quite hard} 7 .


Tanagers are most interesting birds to keep as? pets, as

they are beautiful to look at and, in the majority of cases, very

intelligent and full of character. In all the years I have kept

them, I think I have only had one that never learned to know me

or take kindly to cage life, and though I do not look upon them

as hardy birds I think with careful treatment they can be kept to

a ripe old age.


My experience of keeping them is only in cages, so I sup¬

pose I ought not to criticise others, but it will take a great deal

to convince me that Calliste and some others can be kept out of

doors all the year round with impunity. Occasionally one hears

of a Superb wintering out of doors, but it is rare to hear of that

Superb having successfully moulted the following year, the

strain on its constitution having been too great.


Another difficulty I find in writing about Tanagers is the

wide difference in individual birds of the same species. Take for

instance the Violet. If you buy one one week and write out a

bill of fare for it, from what you have observed that it takes to

readily, it does not follow that the same bill of fare will do for all

Violets, the next one you get may be a bird of entirely different

tastes and absolutely decline to touch the provisions enjoyed by

the first. I think the best plan with a newly-bought Tanager is



