T A N A G E R. 



773 



Thus, as compared with the warblers, the finches and 

 analogous tribes have really much more labour in 

 finding food for their young, as the substances which 

 they collect have to be gathered from a wider pas- 

 ture, and are in themselves less nutritious. The eg: 

 of our finches average about five in a hatch, and the 

 tanagers two or three, which brings the annual pro- 

 ductiveness of the two races very nearly to an equa- 

 lity. The eggs of the tanagers have some resemblance 

 to those of the finches. They are oval, without an\ 

 definite pointedness at the narrowest end, of a white 

 ground, more or less greenish or bluish, and mottlec 

 with small spots of brown, or russet. The birds are 

 also about the size of our finches and linnets, or per- 

 haps in some of the species a little smaller ; and they 

 are neatly and firmly made, and very energetic in 

 their manners. 



When it is mentioned that the species of these 

 birds amount to about sixty, it will be readily under- 

 stood that there must be a considerable difference in 

 their haunts and the details of their habits. Differ- 

 ences of species among birds or any other animals are 

 not given to them for the sake of mere variety or dis- 

 tinction, but for adapting them to the performance 

 of different offices in the grand economy of nature. 

 It is true that, especially in the finer shades, we do 

 not see the difference in the object and use ; but this 

 does not in the least affect the universality of the 

 principle, which holds equally in the case of the most 

 minute difference as of the most conspicuous, and 

 equally in those cases in which we are unable to see 

 it as in those of which we can easily give a full and 

 satisfactory explanation. It is of ver\ r great conse- 

 quence to us to bear this always in mind, and never 

 to pass over the slightest difference of appearance 

 without endeavouring to ascertain the cause ; for if 

 we pass over these minor matters in a careless man- 

 ner, the habit is fostered by our natural love of indo- 

 lence, and we are certain to be, or to become, equally 

 careless in matters of more importance. 



Upon this principle, it would be absurd in us to 

 suppose that there could be sixty species of tanagers 

 in the same regions of South America, all inhabiting 

 precisely the same kind of grounds, and 'practising 

 the same economy in every thing; because it is quite 

 clear that this would be a diversity without a use, 

 and we have no instance of any such diversity in 

 nature, nor could we at all reconcile it with that 

 wisdom of design and perfection of execution, which 

 run so completely through the whole, and which 

 always appear the more conspicuous the more com- 

 pletely that we examine any one individual part. 



The vast number of species of the tanagers, all 

 agreeing in their generic characters, and consequently 

 in their general habits, and all differing specifically 

 and in the details, naturally lead us to expect a cor- 

 responding variety in the character of those places 

 over which the birds have to range ; and when we turn 

 our attention to the physical condition of South 

 America, we find that it has every diversity of sur- 

 face, and consequently of surface production, that we 

 can well imagine. On the parallel of the equator, 

 taking it from the lands not of perpetual verdure 

 merely, but of the very excess of perpetual verdure, 

 at and near the place where the Amazon pours its 

 mighty flood into the Atlantic, across Chimborazo to 

 the shores of the Pacific, we have every variety of 

 surface and of climate that can be imagined ; and, 

 with the exception of those differences in the length 



of the day, and consequent accumulating of the. win- 

 ter into one time of the year, and the summer into 

 the opposite, we have all the varieties which can be 

 met with on the surface of the globe. In many places 

 too we have the greatest seasonal diversities that can 

 occur in a tropical portion of the globe absolute 

 barrenness from drought at one time, and the most 

 exuberant fertility at another. Then we ha.ve a very 

 striking contrast in the country on the two sides of 

 the Andes. The coast country on the east constantly 

 receives the fertilising influence of the trade-wind, 

 and the luxuriance of the vegetation corresponds ; 

 while on the west, or Peruvian side, we have a country 

 comparatively parched, until we recede so far inland 

 as to come within the range of the mountain rains. 



Such a country must demand a very great diversity 

 of those little birds which, from their numbers in 

 all regions, appear to perform so important a part 

 in the system of Nature ; and this seems one of the 

 reasons why the tanagers, which consume the surplus 

 of the smaller fruits, are so very numerous in species, 

 and so varied in their individual habits, at the same 

 time that their general characters are so much the 

 same. But in whatever place they have their prin- 

 cipal habitation, the tanagers are chiefly wing birds, 

 moving by short and jerking flights, and feeding on 

 the perch much more frequently than on the ground. 

 On the latter they do not run, as is the case with the 

 thrushes, which, as a family, are placed immediately 

 after them ; they hop, or proceed on the ground with 

 a partial use of the wings when they move rapidly. 

 Some of them are found chiefly in the depth of the 

 large forests, but even there the trees are really 

 bushes to them ; for they inhabit the tops among the 

 small twigs, and use the wing in passing from one 

 part of the tree to another. Others again live on the 

 confines of the woods, where the bushes in genrml 

 lose their leaves in the dry season ; and the birds 

 which inhabit these must migrate when the produce 

 of the season is exhausted. Those which live most 

 habitually in the woods, are mostly in pairs, or soli- 

 tary when not in the breeding time ; and those that 

 visit the meadows and cultivated fields are more 

 social, and come in flocks. In all these particulars 

 we find that they observe the very same law as the 

 birds of Europe. 



In the tropical parts of the continent of South 

 America, the cultivated grounds bear so very small a 

 iroportion to those which are still in a state of nature, 

 ;hat they do not materially affect the general character 

 of the country. It is different in a small portion of 

 the coast of Guiana ; but even there, the cultivated 

 portion stands to the uncultivated much in the rcla- 

 ;ion of a narrow hem to a wide garment. But in 

 iroportion as this cultivated part is small as com- 

 lared with the country in a state of nature behind, 

 he seasonal visitations of the birds to the cultivated 

 ields are numerous and destructive. It is the same 

 n the countries to the south of the equator; for there 

 .he tanagers come from. " They perch in mass and 

 rtlunder the gardens both of fruits and of the seeds of 

 etruminous vegetables. In the West India islands it 

 s still|the same. There, the slopes of the mountains, 

 nd all places which are not adapted for the kind of 

 ultivation which is followed as the most profitable, 

 s covered w'th wood or brush of some kind or other, 

 and very many of the trees composing these woods 

 and brushes, yield berries and other succulent fruits, 

 which feed multitudes of birds, and birds of this genus 



