TANAGERS. 



87 



certain distance, just as though he wished to avoid 

 betraying the nest by his conspicuously-coloured plu- 

 mage. At the approach of danger both sexes utter a 

 gentle rippling chirrup, which consists of weak, pleasing 

 notes, whilst they slip away through the densest tangle 

 of branches and leaves, and if anyone attempts to rob 

 the brood, the female boldly dashes towards him, almost 

 at his head. The nest is built by the latter alone, only 

 in four days, always 1 on a horizontal bough of a tulip 

 tree, or an oak in a cjrove or light thicket, or even on 

 an apple tree in a garden. It consists of stalks, straws, 

 leaves, and similar materials, is loosely constructed 

 and lined with rootlets, grasses, bast, and fibres. An 

 egg is laid daily until the clutch of four or five eggs 

 is complete ; the female alone incubates, and is not once 

 fed by the male, she also has to feed the young, 

 hatched after twelve days, alone, and moreover with all 

 sorts of soft insects, their eggs and larvae. After about 

 two weeks the young leave the nest, and a week later 

 are able to attend to themselves. Only one brood is 

 reared in each yean-. It should be noted that this 

 species is extremely sensitive to cold. If in May after 

 the hot days in April some frosty days occur, as usually 

 happens here, these birds suffer greatly, and many die. 

 Russ says that this specieis has been imported singly 

 by Mr. Reiche and Miss Hagenbeck ; Mr. L. Nesmirak, 

 of Prague, had a pair for a considerable time, but could 

 not induce them to breed. Dr. Russ received a male in 

 winter plumage from H. Moller, of Hamburg, and two 

 years later a female for identification from the younger 

 Lintz. 



BLACK-AND-RED TAXAGER (Pyranga erythr&melas). 



Scarlet ; forehead, lores, orbital space, chin, wings, 

 and tail black ; upper back more or less varied with 

 black ; lesser and greater wing-coverts tipped with 

 white, forming two white bars ; bill and feet black. 

 Female, above olive ; wing-coverts as in the male, wings 

 and tail brownish-black ; under surface more yellow 

 than the upper. Habitat, Southern Mexico and Central 

 America to Panama. 



Doubtless the wild' life would be similar to that of 

 the preceding species, but my library does not enable 

 me to discover any definite statements respecting it. 



The London Zoological Society secured three speci- 

 mens in 1907, by exchange with the New York Zoo- 

 logical Park. 



LOUISIANA TANAGER (Pyranga ludomciana). 



Above yellow ; head and neck reddish, least so at the 

 sides ; middle of back, wings, and tail, black ; a yellow 

 band across the median wing-coverts, and a yellowish 

 white band across the greater coverts ; tertials more or 

 less edged with whitish; bill horn-colour, greenish 

 below ; feet lead-colour ; irides brown. Female, above 

 olive-green, below yellowish; upper back dusky, with 

 olive margins to the feathers; wings and tail dark 

 brown ; the coverts as in the male. Habitat, Western 

 N. America, Mexico, and Guatemala. 



J. G. Cooper says of this Tanager (" Geol. Surv 

 Calif.," Vol. I., p. 146, 1870) : "I noticed the arrival 

 of this beautiful bird, near San Diego, in small parties 

 on the 24th of April, and they reach Puget Sound 

 about May 15th. The males come some time in 

 advance, clothed in their full summer livery, and are 

 more bold and conspicuous than the females, which are 

 rarely seen without close watching. They frequent 

 trees, feeding on insects and berries, and singing much 

 in the same manner as the other species, and more 

 like the Robin and Grosbeaks than any other birds. 



"I saw none of them in the Coast 'Range towards 

 Santa Cruz, or at Santa Barbara, in summer, and sup- 



pose they must seek the higher and more northern 

 regions at that season. Their nest and eggs have not 

 been described. I found this species in September, 

 1860, in the higher Rocky Mountains, near the sources 

 of the Columbia, in lat. 47 deg., and they probably 

 remain until October within this State. In the fall, 

 the young and old, all in the same dull greenish 

 plumage, associate in families, and feed on elder- 

 berries and other kinds, without that timidity which 

 they have in spring. Although found as far east as the 

 Rocky Mountains, I saw none along the Colorado 

 Valley, probably because they migrate more in the line 

 of mountain ranges." 



Russ says that this bird is rarer than all other 

 hitherto imported species. In 1873 he received a male 

 from Karl Gudera, which some months later died in 

 summer plumage ; to his knowledge it had not been 

 previously imported, nor had it come subsequently, but 

 he thinks there is every prospect of a bird so widely 

 distributed becoming commoner in the trade, 

 SAIRA TANAGER (Pyranga saira). 

 Bright rosy-scarlet; upper back and edges of wings 

 and tail darker; under wing-coverts rosy-red; bill dark 

 leaden ; feet dark brown. Female olive ; front and 

 sides of head and body below yellow. Habitat, S.E, 

 Brazil. 



Burmeister says this bird is " abundant and every- 

 where on the region o>f the Campos of inner Brazil, but 

 only singly or in pairs ; a stupid little nervous bird, 

 easily recognisable by its colouring, and is one of the 

 daily sights of the traveller in Minais Geraes." 



Russ give no reason for 1 including this bird in his 

 work ; but it has been exhibited at the London Zoo- 

 logical Gardens, and (owing to the restrictions now 

 placed upon the exportation of N. American birds) is 

 far more likely to come into our market than the other 

 species of Pyranga. 



It is probable that all the species of this genus lay 

 greenish eggs spotted with reddish, especially towards 

 the larger end, and that their nests are somewhat 

 loosely constructed with an outer framework of twigs 

 or stalks and leaves, and an inner lining of softer 

 materials. They all feed upon insects and fruit. 

 BLACK TANAGER (Tachyphonus melaleucus). 

 Above and below glossy blue-black ; upper lesser 

 wing-coverts and the under "wing-coverts white ; bill 

 and feet black. Female and young cinnamon-brown, 

 paler on under-surface ; bill dark horn-brown, feet 

 brown ; irides dark. Habitat, " Costa Rica, Panama, 

 and S. America down to S.E. Brazil and Peru" (P. L. 

 Sclater). 



Mr. W. A. Forbes (The Ibis, 1881, p. 333) says of 

 this bird : " It is usually seen singly or in pains, the 

 black male with the chestnut female. The stomach of 

 one I examined contained insects." 



Russ says that Sonnini de Manoncourt observed this 

 Tanager at home on the nest and also besides in the 

 nesting-season, always finding it living in pairs in dense 

 scrub, but never associated in numbers. He further- 

 more informs us that all the time it ha no song, but 

 only utters its shrill, piercing call-note. Its food con- 

 sists of small fruits and insects. Concerning the wild 

 life, says Russ, nothing more definite has hitherto been 

 published. The ^same might be said with regard to the 

 majority of tropical American birds, and therefore the 

 attention _ which is being paid by aviculturists to their 

 life in aviaries is the more useful. 



Dr. Russ, however, overlooked T. K. Salmon's notes 

 (" Proc. Zool. Soc.," 1879, p. 503) : "Food, fruit. Builds 

 in high grass. Eggs, pale salmon -colour, with a few 



