210 
SCARLET TANAGER. 
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 yellowish horn colour; this how- 
ever, like that of most other birds, varies according to the season. 
About the first of August he begins to moult; the young feathers 
coming out of a greenish yellow colour, 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 recovers 
his scarlet dress, or whether he continues of this greenish co- 
lour all winter, I am unable to say. The iris of the eye is of a 
cream colour, the legs and feet light blue. The female (now I 
believe for the first time figured) is green above and yellow be- 
low; the wings and tail brownish black, edged with green. The 
young birds, during their residence here the first season, con- 
tinue nearly of the same colour with the female. In this cir- 
cumstance we again recognize the wise provision of the Deity, 
in thus clothing the 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 succeeding spring, I think highly probable, from the cir- 
cumstance of frequently finding their red feathers, at that sea- 
son, intermixed 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, farther 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 Tan- 
agra .fimzzYfaof Turton; and though so like, is a yet 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 difierences are these: The plu- 
mage of the Brazilian is almost black at bottom, very deep scar- 
