i2 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



as far as Catende. It seems, however, an essentially low-country bird, 

 and as the country rises in the interior, disappears. This bird goes 

 about, like several of the other Tanagers, in small parties, composed 

 chiefly of immature or female birds, so that the number of those seen 

 in the gorgeous crimson and black dress of the adult male is compara- 

 tively small. It is always to be found in the low bushes and vegetation 

 that grow about the lower slopes and bottoms of the valleys in the 

 neighbourhood of water, and is never, according to my observation, 

 found in gardens or the virgin forests. It has a quick, rather loud, 

 sharp, chirping note, of a single syllable, repeated several times in 

 sharp succession, which one soon gets to recognise. The Brazilian 

 name is ' Sanger de Boi,' i.e., Ox's blood, from the brilliant crimson 

 of the plumage of the male." 



Dr. Burmeister and Carl Euler are in agreement with Forbes as 

 regards the localities haunted by the Scarlet Tanager, the former stating 

 that it affects the undergrowth of marshy districts and the neighbourhood 

 of rivers, or the river valleys themselves ; but always wet ground covered 

 with scrub ; and the latter, that its favourite haunts are the marshy 

 situations in low-lying country, on which account it is far more 

 numerous in the alluvial plains of the lake shores than in the mountains. 



It keeps together in small colonies, but not crowded together ; one 

 only sees isolated examples hopping about in the scrub, sometimes 

 males, sometimes females. The bird does not visit the higher mountain 

 valleys. 



Burmeister found the nest in similar situations in the marsh, and 

 always low down. Carl Euler says he found it in tufts of reedy grass, 

 in which it formed a large mass, partly hidden by the overhanging 

 blades, on the ground of hillocks enclosed by the marsh. The nest is 

 constructed of dry leaves of reeds and rushes, (Burmeister speaks also 

 of moss), carefully woven and twisted together; but, nevertheless, from 

 a lack of binding materials, so loosely compacted that, when taken, it 

 frequently falls to pieces. It is cup-shaped, and the flattish depression 

 is lined with flowering stems. 



The eggs are from two to three in number, of a beautiful blue- 

 green colour, shining and smooth-shelled. The marking consists of 

 scattered, sharply-defined, pitchy blackish spots and dots, which are 

 distributed over the entire surface, and interlined with very fine 

 scrawling : those obtained by Burmeister appear also to have had a 

 black zone on the blunt end. 



A friend of mine, Mr. J. Housden, of Sydenham, had a fine male 

 example of this Tanager for seven years ; he speaks of it as a hardy 



