182



Dr. A. G. Butler,



Up to this date I had only heard the call-note of these

birds ; a thin sibilant tseet, which somewhat reminded me of

the plaintive penetrating call of a Robin or Blackbird, though

not so prolonged; but the relief from persecution seemed so to

cheer the cock bird, that, a day or two later, he began to sing,

and this he continued to do each morning.


The song begins with a sort of descending chatter like

the quarrelling of Sparrows ; then follows a series of thin reedy

notes, with one or two clear sharp whistles thrown out spasmod¬

ically by way of a change, recalling the recording of a Dominican

Cardinal’s song : it can hardly be praised as a musical effort.


On sending off the dead bird to be made into a skin, I

asked the taxidermist to make sure of the sex, and, to my

surprise, it was returned to me as an undoubted cock bird ; so

that, if both had lived and I had essayed (as I was much tempted

to do) to breed with them, I should perchance have wasted my

time: yet anybody looking at the two birds when caged together,

would have supposed them to belong to different sexes. It would

be interesting to me to know whether the same man sexed this

bird and my cock Red-headed Cardinal, which was declared to

be a hen.


In the case of Superb Tauagers which I have at various

times sexed when alive, the post mortem examinations have

invariably corresponded with my decisions ; but it would seem

that the sexual differences in Archbishop Tanagers cannot be

thus easily defined, and that the colouring, and the size of the

individuals of the same sex, are liable to variation ; possibly in

relation to the age of the birds : doubtless there is some reliable

sexual difference (as in many of the true finches and the weaving

finches) in the contour of the head and beak, which is at once

apparent to the birds themselves; and in all probability would

be recognized by the trained eye of an aviculturist, if he could

compare a series of sexed specimens side by side.


At first I fed these birds upon “Century Food” and

preserved yolk, mixed with sweet biscuit and bread crumbs and

slightly damped ; together with apple and banana ; later I tried

them with orange and grapes, both of which they took to readily.

At first they refused mealworms, but after about a week they ate



