THE VIOLET TANAGER. 9 



imported birds which have not come into his hands. There can be 

 little reason to doubt that the same observations made respecting the 

 Snperb Tanager would be applicable to this and the other allied species 

 of Callistc. 



The Paradise Tanager is, without question, by far the most beautiful 

 of all the Tanagridcc : it is a species frequently seen in cases of stuffed 

 birds, and at one time disgraced the women of Europe by ornamenting 

 their hats and bonnets : but nowadays, although the barbaric custom of 

 adorning the head with birds' feathers and skins has unhappily not 

 wholly been abolished, the subjects chosen for the purpose are less 

 obtrusively gorgeous in colouring : thus, though there is still the sad 

 prospect before the ornithologist of seeing the Egrets and other soft- 

 plumaged species annihilated, there is some hope for the more brilliant 

 of nature's feathered offspring. 



THE VIOLET TANAGER. 



Euphonia violacea, L/INN. 



THIS bird is an inhabitant of Guiana, Trinidad, the Lower Amazons, 

 and South-eastern Brazil. Its colouring, though less dazzling 

 than that of the foregoing species, is nevertheless exceedingly beautiful: 

 above, it is of a dark shining violet blue, with the front of the head 

 to a line with the eyes orange-yellow ; on the under surface it is orange- 

 yellow, becoming rather pale towards the vent ; the tail beneath is 

 black, with white patches on the two outer rectrices ; the wings below 

 are black, with a large white patch occupying the inner webs of the 

 feathers ; the bill and legs black. Entire length y* inches. 



The female above is olive-green, but below yellowish-olive , the 

 inner webs of the wing-feathers being white at the base. 



The Violet Tanager has two near relations : E. hirundinacea from 

 Southern Mexico and Central America, as far as Costa Rica, which may 

 be distinguished by the steel-bhie colouring of its back ; and C. gnatho 



