530 AVES—TANAGER. 
the leaves for worms and larve. It is quite a familiar bird, and will suffer 
a person to walk round the bush or thicket, where it is at work, without 
betraying any signs of alarm, and when disturbed, uttefing the notes tow-he, 
repeatedly. At times, the male mounts a small tree, and chants his few 
simple notes for an hour ata time. They are loud, but not unmusical. He 
is fond of thickets near streams of water, and is found generally over the 
United States. The nest is placed on the ground among the dry leaves, and 
is large and substantial. He shows great affection for his young, and is 
remarkable for the cunning with which he conceals his nest, sometimes 
nearly covering it with dry grass. In Virginia he is called the bulfinch. 
This bird is eight inches and a half long; of a black color above, and 
white below. The eye changes in color; the iris being sometimes white, 
and often red. 
There are various others of the bunting genus, natives of the United 
States, as the white-crowned bunting, the bay-winged bunting, the black- 
throated bunting, Henslow’s bunting. 
THE SCARLET: TANAGE RA 

Is one of the most beautiful of American birds, having a plumage of the 
richest scarlet, with wings of jet black. He is spread over the United States, 
and is found even in Canada, and South America. He rarely approaches 

1 Tanagra rubra, Lrxy. The genus Tanagra has the bill short, strong, triangular at 
the base, carinated, much compressed at the point, which is bent; upper mandible longer 
than the under, and notched; edges of the mandibles bent inwards; under mandible 
straight, and somewhat gibbous toward the middle; nostrils basal, lateral, rounded, partly 
concealed by projecting feathers; tarsus the length of the middle toe; the external tue 
joined “t its base; the internal free; wings with the second and third quills longest. 
