TANAGERS. 



85 



forms (Tanagra palmarum, Bhamphoccelus jacapa, 

 Calliste)." 



This bird also has been exhibited at the London 

 Zoological Gardens. 



ARCHBISHOP TAN ACER (Tanagra ornata). 



Above dull olive, rather brighter on the rump ; head 

 and neck all round glosisy smalt blue, showing dull 

 brassy reflections in the living bird ; -wings and tail 

 blackish, edged with bright olive ; lesser coverts 

 bluish shading into yellowish-green and broadly tipped 

 with yellow (forming a short conspicuous bar in some 

 examples) ; under surface of body brownish grey, washed 

 with blue on the breast and flanks ; under wing-coverts 

 creamy white ; inner margins of wing-feathers ashy ; 

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

 rather pa.ler in colouring. Habitat, S.E. Brazil. 



Burmeister says that this Tanager is abundant in the 

 woodlands of the central coastal tract, especially at 

 Bahia and its neighbourhood ; lives like all Tanagers 

 near the settlements, comes into gardens and is not 

 very shy. 



In The Avimltural Magazine, new series, Vol. III., 

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

 coloured 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 forwarded in an open cage and 

 supplied with apple ; the journey occupied nine days 

 and they reached me on a bitter frosty morning, yet 

 both were living. 



As there wa.s a. marked difference in the size of the 

 two birds and the stouter specimen was distinctly duller 

 in colouring than the other, I naturally supposed them 

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

 flight ; they, however, quarrelled frequently and when 

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

 fore transferred them to a larger flight, where at first 

 they were more friendly ; 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 too 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 fsppf, but the song as beginning a with 

 a sort of descending chatter, like the quarrelling of 

 Sparrows. 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 Cardinal'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 it, as follows: Tup-cheer, 

 tup-cheer, tup tufti-tup, cheer, te-cheer, sung rapidly 

 and loudly. The Archbishop T'anager is extremely swift 

 in its movements, and when strangers approach its cage 

 and begin to stars 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 earth 

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

 Accentor or Pekin Nightingale. 



This bird also has been exhibited by our Zoologica.l 

 Society, and of late years specimens have appeared at 

 various bird shows. 



STRIATED TANAGER (Tanagra bonariensis) . 

 Above, back black ; rump orange ; wings and tail 

 blackish edged with blue ; 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. Repub., Vol. I., p. 39) : "It is a 

 migratory species, which appears in Buenos Ayres in 

 small flocks in summer. Both sexes have a long, sharp, 

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

 posed of notes with a peculiar bleating sound." 



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

 de Zamora, Buenos Ayres, says : " Migratory, arriving 

 here about the middle of May, when they become 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 Ibis, 1888, p. 462.) 



Mr. A. H. Holland also observes : " Arrives here in 

 great numbers in May, but departs 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. 



SCARLET TANAGER (Bhamphoccelus brasilius). 

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

 colouring is dazzling carmine-red, the wings black, 

 the wing-coverts being flecked with carmine, the tail 

 black, the 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 species affects low-lying moist 

 localities, and as a rule is seen singly hopping about in 

 bushes or undergrowth ; it nests an reedy grass, 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 clays, 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 pvr- 

 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 imported. I think a good deal depends 

 upon the food supplied. 



My birds have a soft-food mixture consisting of stale 

 breadcrumbs, egg, powdered biscuit, and either " Cen- 

 tury Food " or " Improved Cekto " 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 temporarily lamed the 

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

 or three months it recovered completely. 



Most observers state that the Scarlet Tanager only 



