i8o Dr. A. G. Butler,


Writing on the 20th December Mr. Astley said :—


“ Dear Dr. Butler,


“ I am sending you the pair of Green-shouldered

Tanagers, which I hope will arrive safely. They are being

sent off Monday; and I have put apples in the cage.


As they are nice strong healthy birds to start with, they

ought to survive the journey. I hope you will care to accept

them from me, and that they will prove to be a species you

haven’t before seen in the flesh.


They are decidedly quarrelsome with other birds. I

haven’t found them at all delicate, but then they haven’t been

out of doors in England.


Trusting they will reach you alive.


Believe me, yours truly,


Hubert D. Astley.”


On Tuesday the 29th, a bitter frosty morning, the birds

reached me (11.50 a.111.); and, as the cage was open to the air in

front, and the birds had been nine days on their journey, I was

much astonished and relieved to discover that both were

apparently in the best of health.


It appears that Mr. Astley did not cover up the cage, as he

had written upon it “ Fruit eaters,” and hoped that some kind

person would put a bit of apple or orange in for them : perhaps

it was as well that this was not done; for it is probable that,

in that event, the birds would have escaped. When I slid up the

wire doors they were out in a minute into a flight-cage which I

had ready for their reception.


Having the birds before me I again took up the Catalogue

and decided that they were not referable to Tanagra cyanoptera,

but to T. ornata ; and a subsequent visit to the Museum con¬

firmed this identification : having them more closely under my

eye than Mr. Astley had when he described them, I saw that the

centre of the green patch on the wing-coverts was bright

chrome yellow, much less prominently so than in the Museum

specimens indeed, but probably the size of the yellow patch

increases with age. *



The yellow patch is oti the long fringes of the lesser coverts, which therefore Dr. Sclater

describes as edged with yellow.



