36 
Mij Tanagers — Past and Present. 
I believe him to have been almost — if not the only one — which 
has ever figured on the show bench. He became mine at the 
L.C.B.A. Show, I'JfO, where he won first and attracted mucli 
attention as his colouring was wonderful (see plate " B.N."' 
Vol. III., N.S., page 1), but he was not an interesting bird 
in himself, and though he lived till last year never became 
particularly tame or friendly. 
Of my present collection the Blue -headed Euphonia and 
tiie Black-cheeked certainly stand out both for rarity and 
beauty of plumage. They took first and second in the order 
named at the last L.C.B.A. Show. It is difficult to make up 
one's mind whether one prefers the vivid colouring of the little 
Euphonia, with his jaunty Eton-blue cap and brown breast, 
or the delicately-shaded opal tints of the Black -cheeked, which, 
though far less brilliant, has a refinement of colouring, which is 
wonderfully attractive, and grows upon one the more one sees 
the bird in different lights. I have two Black -cheeked and 
cannot at present determine whether they are a cock and hen, 
or two cocks, one less mature than the other. They are marked 
exactly alike — only one is a jjaler understudy of the other. 
After living amicably together for over a year they have lately 
taken to quarelling so violently that I have had to sepa;rate 
them — and now incline to the belief that they are two cocks., 
They arrived in London last July in a large cage with a mass 
of other- birds of all sorts and sizes, from Finches to Cowbirds, 
in a state of wretchedness, and semi -starvation impossible 
to describe, and literally at their last gasp. They were, in 
fact, little draggled bundles of broken feathers, too weak to 
resent being lifted out in my hand, and I gave them a very short 
time to live. But they revived marvellously on being given 
food and have never looked back since, and from this speedy 
recovery and the rapidity with which they got into good plum- 
agC; I put them down as one of the hardiest of the many 
specietj of Tanagers, the more so as many of the other birds 
which arrived with them succumbed to the after effects of their 
terrible journey. 
The Blue-Headed Euphonia is a most merry little 
person, remarkably tame and friendly, and quite the most 
attractive in character as well as appearance of all the 
Tanagers I have owned. He is a victim to extreme greed— 
