196 
SCARLET TANAGER. 
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 con- 
fusion, 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. Buffon has afterwards confounded the 
two together, by applying many stories, originally related of 
the Cardinal Grosbeak, to the Scarlet Tanager; and the 
following he gravely gives as his reason for so doing : 44 We 
may presume,” says he, 44 that when travellers talk of the 
warble of the Cardinal, they mean the Scarlet, Cardinal, for 
the other Cardinal is of the genus of the Grosbeaks, conse- 
quently a silent bird.” # This silent bird, however, has been 
declared by an eminent English naturalist, to be almost equal 
to their own Nightingale ! The Count also quotes the 
following passage from Charlevoix to prove the same point, 
which, if his translator has done him justice, evidently proves 
the reverse. 44 It is scarcely more than a hundred leagues,” j 
says this traveller, 44 south of Canada, that the Cardinal begins 
to be seen. Their song is sweet, their plumage beautiful, and 
their head v r ears a crest.” But the Scarlet Tanager is found 
even in Canada, as well as a hundred leagues to the south, 
while the Cardinal Grosbeak is not found in any great 
numbers north of Maryland. The latter, therefore, it is 
highly probable, was the bird meant by Charlevoix, and not 
the Scarlet Tanager. Buffon also quotes an extract of a letter 
from Cuba, which, if the circumstance it relates be true, is a 
singular proof of the estimation in which the Spaniards hold 
the Cardinal Grosbeak. 44 On Wednesday arrived at the port 
of Havannah, a bark from Florida, loaded with Cardinal birds, 
Buffon, vol. iv. p. 209. 
