on two rare Tanagers.



295



“ The eggs are ovate, moderately elongate, with smooth shell,

white or slightly yellowish-white, sprinkled with rather numerous

violaceous spots, either almost evenly distributed all over ; or, more

often, few and small on the larger terminal half, but crowded and

forming a wide belt close round the broad end, which is sprinkled

with tiny spots, but less numerous than at the apex. Length, 19-20;

width, 13, 3-14, 1 millimetres.”


From the fact that Stolzmann neither describes the nest nor

its site, it would seem likely that he did not himself take these eggs.


Unhappily, there do not seem to have been many collectors

of the birds of Ecuador who, like Walter Goodfellow, have taken the

trouble to record the habits of the birds which they have obtained.

I imagine that this deplorable fact is due to the belief that Museum

students, some of whom have stigmatized the study of bird life as

unscientific, are not interested in obtaining information on the

subject; yet I have noticed that these same men never fail to

publish with pleasure all facts dealing with the life-history of birds

which their collectors send home, so that it is evident that they

take some interest in the birds themselves, and not in their

skins alone.


Are the species of Compsocoma rarer than those of the species

of Calliste, or are they more solitary in their habits ? From what

Stolzmann says, it would appear that the forms of Calliste move

about in small flocks, so that a collector of skins would be able to

secure several of any species he might come across, whereas if he

came across a single example of Compsocoma he might fail to bring

it down ; yet there might be many examples skulking in the

neighbourhood.


Mr. Walter Goodfellow says (‘ Avic. Mag.,’ t.c., p. 90): “ We

secured one specimen only of the rare Compsocoma notabilis. This

is a very close ally to the Blue-shouldered Tanager. The arrange¬

ment of the colours is exactly the same, but of an altogether richer

and intenser hue, and it is also a little longer. Its stomach con¬

tained nothing but berries of a hard (and what one would have

thought unnourishing) kind.”


According to Dr. Sclater, who places these two species at

•opposite ends of the genus, they differ in colouring as follows :



