

SPECIES 2. TANAGRA JESTIVA. 



SUMMER RED-BIRD. 

 [Plate VI. Fig. 3, Male. Fig. 4, Female.] 



Tanagra Mississippensis, LATH. Ind. Orn. i, 421, 5. Mexican 

 Tanager, LATHAM, Syn. in, 219, 5, B. Tanagra variegata, 

 Ind. Orn. i, 421, 6. Tanagra cestiva, Ind. Orn. i, 422,7. 

 Muscicapa rubra, LINN. Syst. i, 326, 8. BUFF, vi, 252. PL Enl. 

 741. CATESB. Car. i, 56. Merula flammula, Sandhill Red- 

 bird, BARTRAM, 299. PEALE'S Museum, JVb. 6154. 



THE change of colour which this bird is subject to during 

 the first year, and the imperfect figure first given of it by Cates- 

 by, have deceived the European naturalists so much, that four 

 different species have been formed out of this one, as appears 

 by the above synonymes, all of which are referable to the pre- 

 sent species, the Summer Red-bird. As the female differs so 

 much in colour from the male, it has been thought proper to 

 represent them both; the female having never to my knowledge 

 appeared in any former publication ; and all the figures of the 

 other, that I have seen, being little better than caricatures, 

 from which a foreigner can form no just conception of the ori- 

 ginal. 



The male of the Summer Red-bird (fig. 3.) is wholly of a 

 rich vermilion colour, most brilliant on the lower parts, -except 

 the inner vanes and tips of the wings, which are of a, dusky 

 brown; the bill is disproportionably large, and inflated, the upper 

 mandible furnished with a process, and the whole bill of a yel- 

 lowish horn colour; the legs and feet are light blue, inclining 

 to purple; the eye large, the iris of a light hazel colour; the 

 length of the whole bird seven inches and a quarter, and between 

 the tips of the expanded wings twelve inches. The female (fig. 



