PERCHING BIRDS — TANA GERS— FINCHES 



383 



Tanagers. 



much more peculiar type, singing birds being remarkably few. There are, however, 

 a few representatives of Old World or northern types, South America being the 

 home of some species of thrushes, while mocking-birds, their allies, range all over 

 South America as well as the West Indies and the Galapagos Islands. Very 

 characteristic of tropical America are the warbling wrens of the genus Gyphorhinus, 

 or Leucolepia. On the other hand, the creeping tits (Psallriparus) of California 

 and Mexico are represented in Central Asia and India by the closely allied ASgi- 

 thaliscus. Tropical America is the home of many species of sugar-birds, so called 

 from their frequenting sugar- 

 factories in search of flies; 

 one of the best known being 

 Dacnis cay ana, of which the 

 male is turquoise-blue and 

 black, while the female is 

 grass-green. 



The tanagers, 

 so characteristic 

 of South America, are finch- 

 like birds of gorgeous colora- 

 tion, with a notch at the tip 

 of the beak. The typical 

 group comprises about sixty 

 species, the majority of which 

 are smaller than the European 

 chaffinch. Among them, the 

 superb tanager (Calliste, or 

 Calospiza, thoracica) inhabits 

 south-eastern Brazil. On the 

 other hand the true tanagers, 

 which range into North 

 America, are somewhat less 

 varied in coloration, blue and 

 red being the prevailing tones. 

 A well-known species is the 

 sky-blue tanager (Tanagra coelestis) of eastern Brazil. The velvet tanagers, again, 

 are distinguished by their velvety red and black plumage ; the tapiranga {Rhampho- 

 ccelus brasilius) of southern Brazil being blood -red with black wings and tail. 

 The piping tanagers form a sombre-coloured group, the male of the mourning 

 tanager {Tachyphonus luctuosus) being black, except for certain small white 

 feathers in the wing and the upper wing-coverts, while the females are olive- 

 yellow. The organ-tanagers, again, are worthy of mention, their well-known 

 representative, the violet tanager (Euphonia violacea), being one of the most 

 beautiful birds of tropical South America. 



The shrike-finches form another New World group, chiefly 

 Finch-Tribe. . . ... 



characteristic of the tropics. Among these the Brazilian shrike- 

 finch (Arremon fasciata) is a light grey bird of the size of a chaffinch, with a 



GLOSSY TANAGER. 



