1546 THE PERCHING BIRDS 



makes its appearance in spring in the woods bordering on the Plata river, and is 



usually seen singly or in pairs. The nest is built in a tree ten or twelve feet from 



the ground, and is somewhat shallow and lined with soft dry grass. 



!J e " appe The female lays four eggs, white and spotted with red. During incu- 

 Tanager 



bation the male sits concealed in the thick foliage close by, amusing 



itself by the hour with singing, its performance consisting of chattering disconnected 

 notes, uttered in so low a tone as to make one fancy that the bird is merely trying 

 to recall some melody it has forgotten, or endeavoring to construct a new one by 

 jerking out a variety of sounds at random. The bird never gets beyond this un- 

 satisfactory stage, however, and must be admired for its exquisite beauty alone." 

 Azara named this species the "Blue White- Headed Beautiful," and the term was 

 justified, for the entire plumage of both sexes is a lovely deep corn-flower blue, sur- 

 mounted by a cap of silvery-white feathers; a crimson spot ornamenting the fore- 

 head, looking like a drop of blood. 



THE HONEY CREEPERS 

 Family 



These birds constitute a small group of some forty species. They are allied to 

 the true warblers, so closely indeed, that some of the latter possess the deeply bifid, 

 pencillate tongue, which was once supposed to be peculiar to the honey creepers. 

 Unlike the creepers of the Old World, the honey creepers have soft- feathered, 

 squared tails. They are almost wholly confined to the tropical parts of South 

 America, only a single species ranging as far north as Florida; but they are most 

 numerously represented in the islands of the West- Indian group. 



Among the various genera of the family, we select for notice the 



West-Indian honey creepers, of which a species {Certhiola flaveola} is 



Creepers represented in our illustration. The members of this genus have the 



beak rather shorter than the head, stout at the base, but tapering 



rapidly to the extremely-acute tip, and the whole bill much curved; the wings are 



long, but the tail is short and rounded. 



The habits of this, the figured species, have been best described by 

 1 Gosse, in his work on the Birds of Jamaica. Scarcely larger than the 



average size of the humming birds, this little creeper is often seen in company with 

 them, probing the same flowers and for the same purpose, but in a very different 

 manner. " Instead of hovering in front of each blossom, a task for which its short 

 wings would be utterly incompetent, the banana quit alights on the tree, and pro- 

 ceeds in the most business-like manner to peep into the flowers, hopping actively 

 from twig to twig, and throwing the body into all positions, often clinging by the 

 feet with the back downward, the better to reach the interior of a blossom, with its 

 curved beak and penciled tongue. The minute insects which are always found in 

 the interior of flowers are the objects of its search and the reward of its perseverance. 

 Unsuspectingly familiar, these birds often resort to the blossoming shrubs of gardens 



