90 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



Magpie Tanacer [Cissopis leveriana). 

 White ; the head, neck, upper back, wings, and tail 

 black; the lesser wing-coverts, sjKits at the ends of the 

 greater coverts, margins of outer secondaries and ends 

 of tail-feathers white; throat and breast, the latter 

 tapering away to middle of abdomen, black ; bill and 

 feet black. Female said to be similar, and for lack of 

 authentically sexed females in the nmseum collection I 

 was unable to discover how to distinguish them. 

 Habitat, Guiana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, I'eru, 

 and Bolivia. (P. L. Sclater.) 



Taczanowski quotes the following from Stolzmann 

 C'Orn. Perou," II., jip. 537-8): "This cxtraordinaiy 

 Tanager is found by the banks of rivers and margins 

 of forests. As a rule it is very rare and much more 

 wild than all the other Tanagers. Its oall-note so 

 closely resembles that of the lihamphorrtliis.lhat 1 

 was unable to distinguish it. Th« song is short, like 

 that of Molothrus and of Carcnorhrmis latinuchus. One 

 generally pomes atroEs tlicm in pairs travelling across 

 the dense thickets on the liorders of the woods. I have 

 seen them in March feeding on sweet fruits which then 

 attract a number of different birds." A fair number 

 of examples of this Tajiager has been exhibited from 

 lime to time at the London Zoological Gardens and of 

 late years I have seen it at bird shows. Amcrngst 

 Tanacers it is very remarkable aiwi SLiriking, its bla( k 

 and white plumage being especially distinctive. 

 Bl.\ck-headed Tanaoer {l^chis/orlilaini/s afra). 

 Front half and Mdes of head and throat to middle 

 of breast black; wings and tail blacki--h with 

 grey edges ; upper 

 surface otherwise 

 grey ; under surface 

 paler, the centre of 

 a,bdomen and Tinder 

 wing-coverts whit- 

 ish ; bill leaden 

 grey, black at tip ; 

 feet black ; irides 

 Te<Wish-brown. Fe- 

 male not differen- 

 tiated. Young ashy 

 olivaceous, paler on 

 under surface, wings 

 and tail brown with 

 olive margins. 

 Habitat, South 

 America from 

 Trinidad and Col- 

 ombia to Bolivia 

 and South Brazil. 



W. A. Forbes 

 fThf Ihlx, 1881, pp. 334 5) says 

 was rather abundant round Parahyba 

 neighbourhood of the forest. It is nearly always seen 

 singly near, but not in, high forest, and perches in the 

 larger trees that rise above the bushes and under- 

 growth of the capoeira. It appears to be not at all 

 shy. and is easily shot. The sexes are similar. 



" I bought a single living specimen of this bird in 

 a shop in Recife, and brcjught it safely to London, 

 where it is still living in (he Zoological Society's 

 Gardens. I never before saw it living in Europe." 



Dr. Russ, who calls this a Ci>rrnlhrauMr«, quotes a 

 modified version of Forbes's account, and notes it as 

 one of the birds not hitherto received in the trade, 

 but which he thinks, .sooner or later, certain to conic. 

 FuuGiNors OR Smoky Tanager (Pityhia fiiHginnsus). 

 Black, the whole excepting the sides of head, throat, 

 and breast bluis.h, these parts being more sooty or dead 



black ; -under wing-coverte white ; bill orange ; f««it 

 black. Female not quite so bright, the throat and 

 breast scarcely more intensely black than the reet of 

 the b<xiy. Habitat, South Brazil. 



According to Ruiss this bird "is not abundant, and 

 usually lives in pairs, not ex;ictly in deep forest, but 

 more at the lx>rders on busby and sunny opening^," and 

 that is all that I can discover res])ccting its wild life. 

 It has been exhibited at the London Zoological Gardens. 



Before pussing on to the true FringiUi<i<F it will l>e 

 as well to note that Professor Robert Ridgway refers 

 some of the preceding genera to that family — viz., 

 Diuropix, Saltafnr, and Pitylua. He writes ("Birds 

 of North and Middle America," Vol. I., pp. 24-5) as 

 follows : — 



"TIm group most closely related to the FringiUid(Z 

 is, of course, that called Tanagridm, or at least oertair» 



m0:^C 



'^m 



that 



this bird 

 in the 



members of the latter, which possibly is, even alter tne 

 above-mentioned eliminations, too comprehensive, and 

 therefore may require still further restriction. As com- 

 m<;nly under.stood and accepted, the two supposed 

 families arc clearly purely artificial, and the arbitrary 

 line that has usually Ijeen drawn between them is mani- 

 festly far out of place, the Tanwjrida: having been 

 made to iiu hide fdrms (those mentioned above*) which 

 are unquestionably Fringilline in their relationships." 



His f<X)tnoto rather detracts fi-om the force of the 

 above observations : I should have thought Saltalor 

 one of the most palpably Fringilline of the genera placed 

 in the Tanagridrr : the manner in which it husks and 

 cats seed is essentially Finch-like. 



In Vol. II., under the family Tanagr{da;,\hh auUior 

 says (p. 1) : — ^"I am very doubtful as to whether the 



• The only reasonable doubt pertains to ♦h< genera Pitylus 

 nnd Saltatnr. 



