V >10 SCARLET TANAGER. 



strong, considerably inflated like those of his tribe, the edge of 

 the upper mandible somewhat irregular, as if toothed, and the 

 whole of a dirty gamboge or yellowish horn colour; this how- 

 ever, like that of most other birds, varies according to the season. 

 About the first of August he begins to moult; the young feathers 

 coming out of a greenish yellow colour, until he appears nearly 

 all dappled with spots of scarlet and greenish yellow. In this 

 state of plumage he leaves us. How long it is before he recovers 

 his scarlet dress, or whether he continues of this greenish co- 

 lour all winter, I am unable to say. The iris of the eye is of a 

 cream colour, the legs and feet light blue. The female (now I 

 believe for the first time figured) is green above and yellow be- 

 low; the wings and tail brownish black, edged with green. The 

 young birds, during their residence here the first season, con- 

 tinue nearly of the same colour with the female. In this cir- 

 cumstance we again recognize the wise provision of the Deity, 

 in thus clothing the female and the inexperienced young, in a 

 garb so favourable for concealment among the foliage; as the 

 weakness of the one, and the frequent visits of the other to her 

 nest, would greatly endanger the safety of all. That the young 

 males do not receive their red plumage until the early part of 

 the succeeding spring, I think highly probable, from the cir- 

 cumstance of frequently finding their red feathers, at that sea- 

 son, intermixed with green ones, and the wings also broadly 

 edged with green. These facts render it also probable that the 

 old males regularly change their colour, and have a summer 

 and winter dress; but this, farther observations must determine. 

 There is in the Brazils a bird of the same genus with this, 

 and very much resembling it, so much so as to have been fre- 

 quently confounded with it by European writers. It is the Tan- 

 agra Braziliaot Turton; and though so like, is a yet very distinct 

 species from the present, as I have myself had the opportunity 

 of ascertaining, by examining two very perfect specimens from 

 Brazil, now in the possession of Mr. Peale, and comparing 

 them with this. The principal differences are these: The plu- 

 mage of the Brazilian is almost black at bottom, very deep scar- 



