SUMMER RED BIRD. g$ 



SUMMER RED BIRD. (Tanagra (estiva.) 



PLATE VI.— Figs. 3 and 4. 



Tanagra Mississippensis, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. 421, 5. — Mexican Tanager, Lath. 

 Synop. iii. 219,5 b. — Tanagra variegata, Ind. Orn. i. 421, 6. — Tanagra estiva, 

 Ind. Orn. i. 422, 7.— Muscicapa rubra, Linn. Syst. i. 326, 8.— Buff. vi. 252. 

 PL enl. 741. — Catesby, Gar. i. 56.— Merula flammula, Sandhill Red Bird, 

 Bartram, 299. — Peale's Museum, No. 6134. 



PYRANGA uESTIVA.—VrEihhOT. 

 Subgenus Pyranga,* Tanagra estiva, Bonap. Synop. p. 105. 



The change of colour which this bird is subject to during the 

 first year, and the imperfect figure first given of it by Catesby, 

 have deceived the European naturalists so much, that four 

 different species have been formed out of this one, as appears 

 by the above synonyms, all of which are referable to the pre- 

 sent species, the summer red bird. As the female differs so 

 much in colour from the male, it has been thought proper to 

 represent them both ; the female having never, to my know- 

 ledge, appeared in any former publication ; and all the figures 

 of the other that I have seen being little better than carica- 

 tures, from which a foreigner can form no just conception of 

 the original. 



The male of the summer red bird (fig. 3) is wholly of a rich 

 vermilion colour, most brilliant on the lower parts, except the 

 inner vanes and tips of the wings, which are of a dusky brown ; 



* Pyranga has been used by Vieillot to designate a group among the 

 Tanagers, having the bill of considerable strength, and furnished on the 

 upper mandible with an obtuse tooth, — a structure which has been taken 

 by Desmarest to denote his Tanagras coluriens, or shrike-like tanagers. 

 They are also the Tanagras cardinal of Cuvier. Bonaparte, again, 

 retains Vieillot's group, but only as a subgenus to Tanagra. 



It is composed of nine or ten species, three only being found in North 

 America. They are generally of rich, sometimes gaudy plumage, and 

 require more than one year to arrive at maturity. They live in pairs, 

 and feed on insects, berries, or soft seeds. — Ed. 



