72 TANAGER. 



ornamented with a flat horny substance, of a bright vermilion 

 colour, looking like red sealing-wax. In foreign countries, 

 however, there are many varieties, amongst others the singular 

 Bell-bird, of which we have spoken. 

 It is about the size of a Jay, of a 

 pure white, with nothing remarkable 

 in its appearance, except that from 

 the junction of the fore head and base 

 of the beak, a long fleshy sort of slender 

 wattle hangs down : the bird has, how- 



The Bell-bird. ° ' 



ever, the power, either by filling it 

 with air, or exciting the muscles, of rendering it quite stiff, 

 when it sticks up like a horn of about two inches in length. We 

 have alluded to the probability of this odd appendage, in some 

 way or other, being the cause of the deep bell-toned sound of its 

 note, the air it contains probably contributing to its utterance. 

 Of the Tanagras (Table VII. , p. 12) we have not one in 

 Europe; which is much to be lamented, for although they 

 would not enliven our groves with their song, the brilliancy 

 of their plumage would make ample amends. In the different 

 species, every colour, in its brightest hue, may be found, 

 sometimes mingled together, as in the Painted Tanager, where 

 the brightest shades of green, blue, orange, and black, are so 

 intermingled as to render it, when exposed to the full rays of 

 the sun, almost dazzling to look upon. In another, the Scarlet 

 Tanager, there are only two colours, but so contrasted, as to 

 produce the strongest effect ; the wings and tail appearing like 

 the deepest shade of jet black velvet ; while the rest of the 

 bird is of the deep crimson blood-red colour of the fleshy part 

 of a red cherry. Its note is very simple, but has one 

 peculiarity, viz., that although the bird may be close at hand, 

 the sound appears to come from a distance ; and as it lives 

 generally in the most secluded shades of the forest, it is not im- 

 probable that this deception in its note may often be the means 

 of preserving its life, the hunter being thus led away from an 

 object so easily discovered ; but which, owing to the apparently 

 distant sound, he little suspects to be within his reach. 



