THE



335



Hvicultural fllbacjastne,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



New Series. —VOL. II. — NO. 12 .—All rights reserved. OCTOBER, 1904.



THE ORANGE-BILLED TANAGER.


Saltator auraniiirostris.


By Arthur G. Butler, Ph.D., etc.


This, one of the largest but most sombrely coloured of

the Tanagridce, is an inhabitant of Paraguay, Uruguay, and the

northern and western portions of the Argentine Republic. Of

the few examples which have from time to time come into the

English bird-market, it is tolerably certain that all must have

been imported from Argentina; and that, previous to the

creation of our Society, these few found their way to the

Zoological Gardens of this country.


The Orange-billed Tanager appears to breed late in the

year; d’Orbigny having found it in Corrientes nesting in

November. Being a confiding species for a Tanager, it constructs

its untidy open nest of roots in the vicinity of human habitations.

The eggs are two to three in number, of a greenish blue colour,

slightly spotted at the larger end with blackish and reddish

zigzag markings.


In 1896, as recorded in the 4 Ibis,’ Mr. J. G. Kerr

observed many examples of this and other species of Saltator

on a low-lying brush-covered island in the middle of the River

Paraguay, which it divides into two channels ; but he records

nothing respecting the habits of the genus.


The general colouring of the upper parts of the present

species is brownish ash washed with olive, the crown of the

head being distinctly darker and more slaty than the back,



