TANAGERS. 
37 * 
tanager consists of a succession of pleasing notes, softly poured forth and long 
sustained. The violet tanager is a little gourmand, and feeds eagerly on ripe fruit; 
preferring soft fruits, such as bananas, and plundering the gardens so eagerly as 
sometimes to fairly strip a whole tree. It flourishes as a cage-bird if supplied with 
plenty of room, fed upon an adequate variety of fruits, and kept in a warm room. 
The latter precaution is necessary, since this bird is susceptible of cold and cannot 
bear frost. The adult male has the upper-parts violet; the forehead and lower-parts 
are pure yellow; the tail-feathers are steel blue above, dark beneath. The female 
lacks the ornamental colours of her partner, being of a dull olive-green above, 
beneath yellowish grey. 
„ , x m The splendid scarlet tanagers belong; to the typical subfamily, in 
which the beak is more lengthened and awl-like than in the last, with 
a single terminal notch, which may be obsolete; while both the tail and metatarsus 
are long. Of some two hundred species included in the subfamily, the typical 
tanagers ( Tanagra ) have the plumage blue and yellow, while in the present genus 
scarlet generally predominates in the coloration of the males. Writing of the species 
(Pyranga rubra) in the United States, Mr. Nuttall observes that “this splendid and 
transient resident, accompanying fine weather in all his wanderings, arrives in his 
winter station in tropical America from the beginning to the middle of May, and 
extends his migrations probably to Nova Scotia as well as Canada. With the shy, 
unsocial, and suspicious habits of his gaudy fraternity, he takes up his abode in the 
deepest recesses of the forest, where, timidly flitting from observation, he darts from 
tree to tree like a flashing meteor. A gaudy sylph, conscious of his brilliance, and the 
exposure to which it subjects him, he seems to avoid remark, and is only solicitous 
to be known to his humble mate, and hid from all beside. He therefore rarely 
approaches the habitations of men, unless, perhaps, the skirts of the orchard, where 
he sometimes, however, builds his nest, and takes a taste of the early and inviting 
though forbidden cherries.” The nest is built on the horizontal branch of some 
shady forest tree, constructed of stems of dry weeds, or slender fir twigs loosely 
framed together, lined with slender roots and wiry stems, the whole nest being so 
loosely welded together as to admit the light between the interstices. The eggs 
are dull blue, spotted with two or three shades of brown or purple. The female 
scarlet tanager is a devoted parent, and shows great maternal solicitude for the 
safety of her young. Even the male of this species has been known to follow one 
of his brood for half a mile, feeding it with insects through the wires of the cage 
in which it was confined. The scarlet tanager is the “ red-bird ” of Americans. 
Unfortunately, its crimson body, contrasting with wings and tail black as night, 
makes it only too conspicuous an object, the never-failing bait to the greed of the 
dealer in bird skins. The adult bird is uniform scarlet above, with the wings and 
tail pure black. The female is far less exposed to danger than her mate, being clear 
olive-green above, and below greenish yellow, with the wings and tail dusky, 
glossed with green. Adult males often show abnormal colouring, the body being 
yellow, orange, or flame colour, or red patches appearing on the wings. 
Crimson-Headed Another gorgeously-coloured representative of the tanagers is the 
Tanager. crimson-headed tanager (P. ludoviciana ) of the Western United States 
and Mexico. In Southern Colorado Mr. Henshaw found this tanager in small numbers 
