SCARLET TANAGER. 127 
The male of this species, (Fig. el when arrived at his full size and 
colors, is six inches and a half in length, and ten and a half broad. 
The whole plumage is of a most brilliant scarlet, except the wings 
and tail, which are of a deep black; the latter, handsomely forked, 
sometimes minutely tipped with white, and the interior edges of the 
wing-feathers nearly white; the bill is strong, considerably inflated, 
like those of his tribe, the edge of the upper mandible, somewhat 
irregular, as if toothed, and the whole of a dirty gamboge, or yellow- 
ish horn color; this, however, like that of most other birds, varies 
according to the season. About the 1st of August he begins to moult ; 
the young feathers coming out, of a ee yellow color, until he 
appears nearly all dappled with spots of scarlet and greenish yellow. 
In this state of plumage he leaves us. How long it is before he re- 
covers his scarlet dress, or whether he continues of this greenish color 
all winter, I am unable to say. The iris of the eye is of a cream 
color; the legs and feet, light blue. The female, Fig. 46, (now, I be- 
lieve, for the first time figured,) is green above, and yellow below; the 
wings and tail, brownish black, edged with green. The young birds, 
during their residence here the first season, continue nearly of the 
same color with the female. In this circumstance we again recognize 
the wise provision of the Deity, in thus clothing the female and the 
inexperienced young ina garb so favorable for concealment among 
the foliage; as the weakness of the one, and the frequent visits of 
the other to her nest, would greatly endanger the safety of all. That 
the young males do not receive their red plumage until the early part 
of the succeeding spring, I think highly probable, from the circum- 
stance of frequently finding their red feathers, at that season, inter- 
mixed with green ones, and the wings also broadly edged with green. 
These facts render it also probable that the old males regularly cane 
their color, and have a summer and winter dress; but this further ob- 
servations must determine. 
There is in the Brazils a bird of the same genus with this, and very 
much resembling it, so much so as to have been frequently confounded 
with it by European writers. It is the Tanagra Brazilia of Turton; 
and, though so like, is yet a very distinct species from the present, as 
I have myself had the opportunity of ascertaining, by examining two 
very perfect specimens from Brazil, now in the possession of Mr. Peale, 
and comparing them with this. The principal differences are these: 
The plumage of the Brazilian is almost black at bottom, very deep 
scarlet at the surface, and of an orange tint between; ours is ash 
colored at bottom, white in the middle, and bright scarlet at top. The 
tail of ours is forked, that of the other cuneiform, or rounded. The 
bill of our species is more inflated, and of a greenish yellow color; 
the other’s is black above, and whitish below, towards the base. The 
whole plumage of the southern species is of a coarser, stiffer quality, 
particularly on the head. The wings and tail, in both, are black. 
In the account which Buffon gives of the Scarlet Tanager and 
Cardinal Grosbeak, there appears to be very great confusion, and many 
mistakes; to explain which, it is necessary to observe that Mr. Ed- 
wards, in his figure of the Scarlet Tanager, or Scarlet Sparrow, as he 
calls it, has given it a hanging crest, owing, no doubt, to the loose, dis- 
ordered state of the plumage of the stuffed or dried skin from which 
