TANAGEKS. 



85 



forms (TaiKKjra /laliiKir'um, Ithnm iiluicitlus jacapa, 

 Cnlli.ile)." 



This l)irrl also has been exhil)it«l at the London 

 Zoological Gardens. 



Akciibishoi" Tanager (Tanagra ornata). 



Above dull olive, rather blighter on the rump; head 

 and neck all round glossy smalt blue, showing dull 

 brassy reflections in the living bird; wings and tail 

 blackish, wiged with bright olive; lesser coverts 

 bluish shading into yt-^Uowish-grecn and bruadly tipped 

 with yellow (funning a yhurt conspicuous bar in soino 

 examples) ; un<ler surface of body bro\mish gin-j-, washed 

 with blur on the breast and Hanks; under wing-coverts 

 creamy white; inner margins of wing- feathers ashy; 

 bill black ; feet leaden blue ; iridcs dark brown. Female 

 rather paler in colouring. Habitiit. S.E. Brazil. 



Jlurnici.-iter says that this Tanager is abundant in the 

 Wfmdlaiuls of the central coastaJ tract, especially at 

 Bahia and its neighliaurhood ; lives like all Tanagers 

 near the settlements, comes into gardens and rs not 

 very shy. 



In The Avirxiltural Maqazini-, new series, Vol. III., 

 pp. 179 184, I gave an account (illustrated by a beautiful 

 coloiire<l plate) of two males of this charming species 

 which were sent to me at the end of the year 1903 from 

 Italy. These birds were fcnvarded in an o]>en rage and 

 supplied with apple ; the journey occupied nine days 

 and they reached me on a bitter frosty morning, yet 

 both were living. 



As theie wa-s a marked difference in the size of the 

 two birds and the stouter specimen was distinctly duller 

 in colouring tban the other. I naturally supposed them 

 to be a pair, and kept them together in a moderate-sized 

 flight ; they, however, quarrelled fretiuently and when 

 one went downi to feed the other attacked it ; I there- 

 fore transferred them tt> a larger flight, where at first 

 they were more friendlj' ; then the larger bird became 

 disagreeable and attacked the smaller and brighter one ; 

 day by day it .showed more and more evidences of ill- 

 health ; this ended by it throwing up a quantity of 

 blood and the following day, just a month after it 

 reached me, it was dead — doubtless the exposure with 

 no variety of food had been tr>o much for it. The 

 other bird, which for a few days was subject to sneezing 

 fits, entirely recovered and is in perfect health and 

 plumage as I write. 



In 1905 I described the call-note of this Tanager as 

 a thin sibilant /.<«7. but the song as beginning '"^ with 

 a sort of descending chatter, like the quarrelling of 

 SparroTTS. Then follows a series of thin, reedy notes, 

 with one or two clear, sharp whistles thrown out spas- 

 modically by way of a change, recalling the recording 

 of a Dominican Ordinal's song." I have, however, 

 since discovered that it has another and distinctly a 

 more meritorious though rather shrill song, which I re- 

 corded as the bird repeated if, as follows : — Tup-ehrer, 

 lup-rheer, tup futti-tiip, chrer, le-chi-pr, sung rapidiv 

 and loudly. The Archbishop Tanager is extremely swift 

 in its movements, and when strangers approach its cage 

 and begin to stare at it, its flight backwards and 

 forwards from perch to perch is so rapid that it is im 

 possible for them to see what it is like. On the eartli 

 it moves by swift hops, shuffling its wiings like a Hedge 

 Accentor or Pekin Nightingale. 



Tliis bird also has been exhibited by our Zoological 

 Society, and of late years r.pccimens have appeared at 

 various bird shcvws. 



Striated Tanager {Tanagra bonariensis). 



Above, back black; rump orange; wings and tail 

 blackish edged ■nith bine; head blue; lores and orbital 

 region black ; breast orange, fading into yellow on the 



abdomen ; bill horn-colour, lower mandible whitish, feet 

 brown, irides hazel. Female, greyish-brown, paler 

 below ; rump and throat yellowish. Habitat, South 

 Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, and Bolivia. 



Hudson says"(Arg. Kepiib., Vol. I., p. 39): "It is a 

 migratory species, which ap|)ears in Buenos Ayres in 

 small flocks in summer. B<jth sexes have a long, sharp, 

 reedy call-note ; the male also possesses a song coui- 

 jX)sed of notes with a jwculiar bleating .sound." 



Mr. F. Withington, in a paper on the Birds of Lomas 

 de Zaniora, Buenos Ayi'Cs, says : " Migratory, arriving 

 here about the middle of May, when they bec(jmc fairly 

 plentiful. They are often seen in small lots of five 

 or six, but generally more of them are males than 

 females. They are very partial to gardens and planta- 

 tions." {The Ihi-', 1888, p. 462.) 



Mr. A. H. Holland also ob.serres : " Arrives here in 

 great numbers in May, hut deparfx in September. Many 

 of the males are in immature plumage, which closely 

 resembles that of the hens. {The Ibis, 1891, p. 17.) 



This bird has been exhibited more than once at the 

 London Zoological Gardens. 



Sc.^RLKT Tanager (Itha/iiphocahix hrasiliiis). 



This lovely bird measures about 6i in. in length, its 

 colouring is dazzling carmine-red, the wings black, 

 the wing-coverts being flecked with carmine, the tail 

 black, tlie legs and upper mandible black, the lower 

 mandible white, tipped with black, the iris of eye 

 orange-vermilion. The hen is of a reddish brown 

 colour, with dull brown wings. Habitat, S.E. Brazil. 



In its wild state this specie* affects low- lying moist 

 1 jcalities, and as a rule is seen singly hopping about in 

 bushes or undergrowth ; it nests in reedy gr-ass, form- 

 ing its habitation very losely of dead reeds and 

 rushes, sometimes with an intermixture of moss, and 

 lining the somewhat shallow cup with the flowering 

 heads of the reed ; the eggs, two to three in number, 

 are bright blue-green, dotted and scrawled all over 

 with dark pitchy-brown markings. The hen incubates 

 for thirteen days, and both sexes feed the young. 



This bird is "tolerably hardy, and has even been bred 

 in a large garden aviary in Belgium. As it is rather 

 inclined to be vicious, "it should never be associated 

 with smaller or weaker birds. 



As a cagebird the Scarlet Tanager is quite beauti- 

 ful enough to be well worth keeping, and is no more 

 trouble than any other fruit-eating species. I p"r- 

 chased two males in 1897 at a moderate price, and 

 turned them into a large flight-cage together ; they 

 are both in excellent health as I write this account 

 more than ten years later. I had always been told that 

 the Scarlet Tanager lost the brilliant carmine of its 

 plumage in captivity, the general colouring becoming 

 a brick-red ; I must also admit that I have seen one 

 or two rather dull-coloured specimens at some of our 

 shows ; but my two cock birds are still as brilliant 

 as when first i"mported. I think a good deal depends 

 upon the food supplied. 



Mv birds have a soft-food mixture consisting of stale 

 brea"dcrumbs, egg, powdered biscuit, and either "Cen- 

 tury Food " or " Improved C'ekto " well stirred together 

 and slightly damped ; they also have banana daily, and 

 either half a ripe orange "or half a pear between them 

 daily, with an occasional mealworm, other insect, or 

 spider. 



One would suppose that there was risk in keeping two 

 cocks together ; but this is not so. They certainly 

 wrangle at times, perhaps pull out a few feathers, and 

 on one occasion my larger bird temjjorarily lamed the 

 other by severely Ijiting one of its feet, but after two 

 or three months it recovered completely. 



Most observers state that the Scarlet Tanager only 



