8 1 8 The Sparrow-like Birds 



which are bright, intense scarlet. Richmond says: "It fairly swarms in all 

 favorable situations, and is one of the first birds to impress the eye of a foreigner. 

 The birds spend the day romping about in the bushes or in the banana planta- 

 tions, chasing one another here and there, with no apparent reason other than 

 to pass away the time. They keep up an almost continual squeaky chatter, which 

 is the only note heard on ordinary occasions, but at times I have heard solitary 

 males sing, if the performance may be called a song. It is a very inferior chant, 

 much like the ordinary chatter, but uttered in a slow and measured way. Females 

 appear to be much more numerous than males. The birds are perhaps not 

 truly gregarious, although very social the year round, and may possibly be 

 polygamous. The birds show little feeling when robbed of nests and eggs. 

 The nests are placed in bushes or vines, from one to five feet from the ground, 

 constructed of small stems of plants and dead leaves and lined with fine grass 

 stems. The eggs are ovate, pale blue, marked chiefly on the larger end with 

 dark brown, almost black, spots." The number of eggs appears to be always 

 two. 



Crimson-collared Tanager. Similar in general to the members of the last 

 genus is the beautiful monotypic Crimson-collared Tanager (Phlogothraupis 

 sanguinolenla) of Central America, differing, however, in having the sexes 

 alike in color. The adult plumage is deep black with a blood-red collar which 

 extends over the top of the head to the center of the forehead. It frequents 

 banana plantations and thickets of bamboo along streams, and has habits of 

 nesting similar to those of the Passerini's Tanager. 



Euphonias. The Euphonias form another large tropical group of some 

 thirty or more species. They are small, short- tailed, fruit-eating Tanagers of 

 quite a different style of coloration from those before mentioned, being usually 

 black above glossed with violet, steel-blue, or green, and usually with more or less 

 blue, yellow, or brown on the head. The lower parts are mainly j*ellow. They 

 feed on the fruit of the cactus, banana, etc. 



White-capped Tanager. We have space for but a few other members of 

 this brilliant assemblage, such as the Cardinal, Imperial, or White-capped 

 Tanager (Stephanophoms leucocephalus\ which ranges from southern Brazil 

 to Paraguay and northern Argentina. This bird is a uniform deep blue, with 

 a silky white cap and a small bright crimson crest. The female is similar but 

 less bright. " A more beautiful bird than this Tanager it would be difficult to 

 find," says Barrows, "at least on the Uruguay, and when, in one of those narrow 

 passages between the islands where the trees lean toward each other and 

 solid walls of green rise on either side of your boat, you see a pair of these blue 

 beauties swaying on a slender bush and showing at each turn of the head the 

 snowy crown with its little dash of garnet, while the whole picture lies mirrored 

 in the quiet water. Although shy and suspicious the birds are really plenty 

 enough, and after you learn where to look for them, you may find them in pairs 

 any day in the year. The male during the breeding season has a strong, sweet 

 warble recalling that of the Pine Grosbeak, but at other times both sexes are 

 very silent, giving only a faint, quick chirp of alarm as they disappear." 



