TANAGERS. 



37' 



tanager consists of a succession of pleasing notes, softly poured forth and long 

 sustained. The violet tanager is a little gourmand, and feeds eagerly on ripe fruit ; 

 preferring soft fruits, such as bananas, and plundering the gardens so eagerly as 

 sometimes to fairly strip a whole tree. It flourishes as a cage-bird if supplied with 

 plenty of room, fed upon an adequate variety of fruits, and kept in a warm room. 

 The latter precaution is necessary, since this bird is susceptible of cold and cannot 

 bear frost. The adult male has the upper-parts violet ; the forehead and lower-parts 

 are pure yellow ; the tail-feathers are steel blue above, dark beneath. The female 

 lacks the ornamental colours of her partner, being of a dull olive-green above, 

 beneath yellowish grey. 



The splendid scarlet tanagers belong to the typical subfamily, in 

 'which the beak is more lengthened and awl-like than in the last, with 

 a single terminal notch, which may be obsolete ; while both the tail and metatarsus 

 are long. Of some two hundred species included in the subfamily, the typical 

 tanagers (Tanagra) have the plumage blue and yellow, while, in the present genus 

 scarlet generally predominates in the coloration of the males. Writing of the species 

 (Pyranga rubra)m the United States, Mr. Nuttall observes that "this splendid and 

 transient resident, accompanying fine weather in all his wanderings, arrives in his 

 winter station in tropical America from the beginning to the middle of May, and 

 extends his migrations probably to Nova Scotia as well as Canada. With the shy, 

 unsocial, and suspicious habits of his gaudy fraternity, he takes up his abode in the 

 deepest recesses of the forest, where, timidly flitting from observation, he darts from 

 tree to tree like a flashing meteor. A gaudy sylph, conscious of his brilliance, and the 

 exposure to which it subjects him, he seems to avoid remark, and is only solicitous 

 to be known to his humble mate, and hid from all beside. He therefore rarely 

 approaches the habitations of men, unless, perhaps, the skirts of the orchard, where 

 he sometimes, however, builds his nest, and takes a taste of the early and inviting 

 though forbidden cherries." The nest is built on the horizontal branch of some 

 shady forest tree, constructed of stems of dry weeds, or slender fir twigs loosely 

 framed together, lined with slender roots and wiry stems, the whole nest being so 

 loosely welded together as to admit the light between the interstices. The eggs 

 are dull blue, spotted with two or three shades of brown or purple. The female 

 scarlet tanager is a devoted parent, and shows great maternal solicitude for the 

 safety of her young. Even the male of this species has been known to follow one 

 of his brood for half a mile, feeding it with insects through the wires of the cage 

 in which it was confined. The scarlet tanager is the " red-bird " of Americans. 

 Unfortunately, its crimson body, contrasting with wings and tail black as night, 

 makes it only too conspicuous an object, the never-failing bait to the greed of the 

 dealer in bird skins. The adult bird is uniform scarlet above, with the wings and 

 tail pure black. The female is far less exposed to danger than her mate, being clear 

 olive-green above, and below greenish yellow, with the wings and tail dusky, 

 glossed with green. Adult males often show abnormal colouring, the body being 

 yellow, orange, or flame colour, or red patches appearing on the wings. 

 Crimson-Headed Another gorgeously-coloured representative of the tanagers is the 

 Tanager. crimson-headed tanager (P. ludoviciana) of the Western United States 

 and Mexico. In Southern Colorado Mr. Henshaw found this tanager in small numbers 



