293



THE


Avicultural Magazine,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF

THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.


Third Series. — Yol. YIII.— No. 11 .—All rights reserved. SEPTEMBER, 1917.



TWO RARE TANAGERS.


The Purple-bellied Tanager (Calliste cyanopygia ) and The

Black-chinned Mountain Tanager (Compsocoma notabilis).


By Dr. A. G. Butler.


The illustrations of these beautiful birds have been made

from living examples obtained by Mr. Walter Goodfellow and in the

splendid collection of our member, Mr. E. J. Brook. Although I

have never had the pleasure of seeing them in the flesh, and probably

have never more than glanced at their skins when looking over the

British Museum series some eleven or twelve years ago, our harassed

and much overworked editor has asked me to write an article about

them to accompany the plate; and he generously gives me permis¬

sion to make it as lengthy as I like, which is very nice of him,

considering how much I know about these two species !


In his very interesting article, “ A Naturalist’s Notes in

Ecuador,” published in our Magazine in 1900 (First Series, vol. vi.),

Mr. Goodfellow, speaking of the Tanagers he met with, observes:

“ They are not frequenters of the dense forests ; I do not remember

that I found any of the Tanager family to be so, although many of

them like to hide about in bushes and some of them always keep

near the ground. They all delight in the more open country on the

mountain slopes, or in sunny clearings near the forests, and pass

their time in the fruit-trees near human dwellings.”


Oddly enough, Stolzmann speaks of the species of Calliste, or


22



