SCARLET TANAGER. 
229 
111 the account which Buffon gives of the scarlet 
tanager, and cardinal grosbeak, there appears to be very- 
great confusion, 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 : “ We may presume, 5 ’ 
says he, “ 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, consequently 
a silent bird. 5 ’* 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 folio wing passage from Charlevoix to prove the same 
point, which, if his translator has done him jusjtice, 
evidently proves the reverse. “ It is scarcely more 
than a hundred leagues,” says this traveller, “ south of 
Canada, that the cardinal begins to be seen. Their song 
is sweet, their plumage beautiful, and their head wears 
a crest.” But the scarlet tanager is found even in 
Canada, as well as an 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. 
“ On Wednesday arrived at the port of Havannah, a 
bark from Florida, loaded with cardinal birds, skins, and 
fruit. The Spaniards bought the cardinal birds at so 
high a price as ten dollars a-piece ; and, notwithstanding 
the public distress, spent on them the sum of 18,005 
dollars ! ” f 
* Buffon, vol. iv, p. 209. 
f Gmelli Careri. 
