The ORNATE TANGARA (_Tangara ornata_) is four inches long, the tail
measuring about three inches more, and the wing three inches from the
shoulder to the tip. The plumage of the male is bright blue upon the
head, neck, breast, and lower part of the body, with a greyish shade
where the roots of the feathers are visible; the middle of the belly,
legs, and rump are greenish grey; the back is of a dirty greenish grey,
shaded with blue; the lesser wing-covers are blue at the shoulder; the
smallest feathers of these parts are lemon yellow, and the remainder
of the wing greyish brown, each feather being bordered with green. The
tail is a greyish brown, its middle portion shaded with green, the rest
only edged with that colour. All such parts as are blue in that of her
mate are in the plumage of the female greyish green, shaded with blue;
the green and yellow markings of the wings being much paler and more
indistinct.
All the countries from the Amazon to Guiana, and the woods upon the
coast of Brazil, afford a home to these birds; they seem to prefer the
shelter of the plantations that abound in these districts to the sombre
retreat of large forests, and pass their active, cheerful little lives
in the immediate neighbourhood of man, to whose orange and lemon trees
they are at once ornaments and formidable enemies. Except during the
pairing season these Tangaras have no song, but merely utter a simple and
monotonous call-note. The nest is built upon a tree, and resembles that
of a Greenfinch.
* * * * *
Our knowledge of the North American Tangaras is much more extensive. We
shall confine ourselves, however, to the mention of two species belonging
to the group denominated.
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FIRE TANGARAS (_Pyranga_). The members of this group are slender, their
wings long, pointed, and reaching almost to the middle of the rounded
tail. Their beak is strong, conical, vaulted, and strongly compressed at
the margins; the edges of the upper mandible are somewhat bent outwards,
and jagged towards the middle portion, but straight near its extremity,
where there is a scarcely perceptible notch. The plumage of these birds
is thick and smooth, that of the male being generally red, that of the
female yellow.