SCARLET TANAGER. jqjj 



female, and the inexperienced young, in a garb so favourable 

 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 suc- 

 ceeding spring, I think highly probable, from the circumstance 

 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 change their colour, and have a summer and winter 

 dress ; but this further observations 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 fre- 

 quently 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 coloured 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 colour ; 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 confu- 

 sion, and many mistakes ; to explain which, it is necessary to 

 observe, that Mr Edwards, 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 disordered state of the plumage 

 of the stuffed or dried skin from which he made his drawing. 



