SCARLET TANAGER„ 
195 
he continues of this greenish colour 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 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 colour with the female. In this circumstance 
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 weak- 
ness 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 circumstance of frequently finding their red feathers, at 
that season, 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 unust 
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 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, 
