90 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



MAGPIE TANAGER (Cit*opis Ifveriana). 



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

 black ; the lesser wing-coverts, spots 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 museum collection I 

 was unable to discover how to distinguish them. 

 Habitat, Guiana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, 

 and Bolivia. (P. L. Sclater.) 



Taczanowski quotes the following from Stolzmann 

 C'Orn. Perou," II., pp. 537-8): "This extraordinary 

 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 Tanageris. Its call-note so 

 closely resembles that of the Rhamphoccelue that I 

 was 'unable to distinguish it. The song is short, like 

 tli:it of Molothrus and of Carenochrmis latiniichns. One 

 generally comes across them in pairs travelling across 

 the dense thickets on the borders 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 c*f this Tanager has been exhibited from 

 time to time at the London Zoological Gardens, and of 

 late yeans I have seen it at bird shows. Amongst 

 Tanagers it is very remarkable and striking, its black 

 and white plumage being especially distinctive. 

 BLACK-HEADED TANAGER (Schistochlamya atra). 



Front half and sides of head and throat to middle 

 of breast black; wings and tail blackish with 

 grey edges ; upper 

 surface otherwise 

 grey ; under surface 

 paler, the centre of 

 abdomen and under 

 wi n LJ-CO verts whit- 

 ish; bill leaden 

 grey, black at tip ; 

 feet black ; irides 

 reddish-brown. Fe- 

 male not differen- 

 tiated. You n g a>hy 

 olivaceous, paler on 

 under surface, wings 

 and tail brown with 

 olive margin s. 

 Habitat, South 

 A m erica from, 

 Trinidad and Col- 

 ombia to Bolivia 

 and South Brazil. 



W. A. Forbes 

 (T/if Ilji*, 1881, pp. 334-5) says that "this bird 

 was rather abundant round Parahyba in the 

 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 brought it safely to London, 

 where it is still living in the Zoological Society's 

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



Dr. Russ, who calls this a Coccothraustes, 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 come. 



FULIGINOUS OR SMOKY TANAGER (Pltyhis fuliginosus). 



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



and breast bluish, these parts being more sooty or dead 



Black ; under wing-coverts white ; bill orange ; feet 

 black. Female not quite so bright, the throat and 

 breast scarcely more intensely black than the rest of 

 the body. Habitat, South Brazil. 



According to Ruiss this bird " is not abundant, and 

 usually lives in pairs, not exactly in deep forest, but 

 more at the borders on bushy and sunny openings," and 

 that is all that I can discover respecting its wild life. 

 It has been exhibited at the London Zoological Gardens. 



Before passing on to the true Fringillidce it will be 

 as well to note that Professor Robert Ridgway refers 

 some of the preceding genera to that family viz., 

 Diucopis, Saltator, and Pityhts. He writes (" Birds 

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

 follows : 



"The group most closely related to the Fringillidtv 

 is, of course, that called Tanagridce, OT at least certain 



FKSTTVK TA\A(J ER. (See j.tKjc ,v >. } 



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

 above-mentioned eliminations, too comprehensive, and 

 therefore may require still further restriction. As com- 

 monly 'understood and accepted, the two supposed 

 families are clearly purely artificial, and the arbitrary 

 line that has usually been drawn between them is mani- 

 festly far out of place, the Tanacjriflce. having been 

 made to include forms (those mentioned above*) which 

 are unquestionably Fringilline in their relationships." 



His footnote rather detracts from the force of the 

 above observations : I should have thought Salfafnr 

 one of the most palpably Fringilline of the genera placed 

 in the Tanagridre. : the manner in which it husks and 

 eats seed is essentially Finch-like. 



In Vol. II., under the family Tanagridfr. this author 

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



* The only reasonable doubt pertains to th* genera Piti/hix 

 and Saltator. 



