SCARLET TANAGER. 211 



let at the surface, and of an orange tint between; ours is ash co- 

 loured at bottom, white in the middle, and bright scarlet at top. 

 The tail of ours is forked, that of the other cuneiform or 

 rounded. The bill of our species is more inflated, and of a 

 greenish yellow colour the others is black above, and whitish 

 below towards the base. The whole plumage of the southern 

 species is of a coarser, stiffer quality, particularly on the head. 

 The wings and tail, in both, are black. 



In the account which Buffon gives of the Scarlet Tanager, 

 and Cardinal Grosbeak, there appears to be very great confu- 

 sion, and many mistakes; to explain which it is necessary to 

 observe, that Mr. Edwards in his figure of the Scarlet Tanager, 

 or Scarlet Sparrow as he calls it, has given it a hanging crest, 

 owing no doubt to the loose disordered state of the plumage of 

 the stuffed or dried skin from which he made his drawing. 

 Buffon has afterwards confounded the two together by apply- 

 ing many stories originally related of the Cardinal Grosbeak, 

 to the Scarlet Tanager; and the following he gravely gives as 

 his reason for so doing. "We may presume, "says he, " that 

 " when travellers talk of the warble of the Cardinal they mean 

 " the Scarlet Cardinal, for the other Cardinal is of the genus of 

 "the Grosbeaks, consequently a silent bird."* This silent 

 bird, however, has been declared by an eminent English natu- 

 ralist, to be almost equal to their own nightingale ! The Count 

 also quotes the following passage from Charlevoix to prove the 

 same point, which if his translator has done him justice, evi- 

 dently proves the reverse. << It is scarcely more than a hundred 

 leagues," says this traveller, "south of Canada, that the Cardi- 

 " nal begins to be seen. Their song is sweet, their plumage 

 " beautiful, and their head wears a crest." But the Scarlet Ta- 

 nager is found even in Canada, as well as an hundred leagues to 

 the south, while the Cardinal Grosbeak is not found in any great 

 numbers north of Maryland. The latter therefore, it is highly 

 probable, was the bird meant by Charlevoix, and not the Scar- 



* Buffon, vol. iv, p. 209. 



