Pon'ign Fuichcs in Captivity.
especially should be tluis protected against cold winds; a very good addition, in
the case of these and all delicate birds, would be. a muslin blind, to draw tightly
over the front in cold weather.
As regards food on the journey, hard-boiled egg and potato, with ripe fruit
when procurable, would be far preferable to sour oranges; but to anyone visiting
America, by far the best plan would be to take out a dozen large tins of Abrahams'
food for insectivorous birds, and give it daily, mixed with an equal quantity of
stale bread crumbs and boiled potato chopped up or passed through a masher. I
am satisfied that, by attending to warmth and diet, Tanagers might be readily
imported,
Like the true Finches, Tanagers build open cup-shaped nests, often neatly
made, and with a good deal of moss in the outer wall; their eggs are spotted, especially
at the larger end, with various shades of brown or lavender, on a white, greenish or
brownish gi-ound-tint. Although the adult birds, when not nesting, are most frequently
seen in flocks among the higher trees, the nests appear to be generally placed in the
forked branches of low trees or shrubs; probably because in such a position they are
less exposed to the violence of stormy winds.
I do not believe that a very high temperature is necessary in order to keep
Tanagers in health: the principal things to attend to are, avoidance of draughts
and of unnatural food. Wiener marvelled that his Tanagers died in' a few weeks,
although he kept their cages in a hothouse, suiTounded with palms and shrubs. If I
were a caged bird, it would not be a great consolation to be constantly reminded of
the foliage of the tropics, or whilst condemned to hop up and down incessantly on a
hard perch with no yielding in it, to see all around me the elastic leaves and branches
upon which I ought naturally to be swinging to and fro.
Most, if not all, tropical birds can be so far acclimatised as to do well in a
temperate atmosphere, but the steamy air of a hothouse containing growing plants,
would undoirbtedly be injurious, unless plenty of ventilation without draught could
be supplied.
But there is another point of interest to be considered in respect to Wiener's
treatment of Tanagers: He tells us that they "should be kept on Nightingale food,
with a little crushed hemp-seed. Sweet, over-ripe pears and bananas, or very sweet
grapes, should be given as much as possible, together with a few meal-worms."
Wiener does not explain what Nightingale food is, but another writer for the
same work says that it "is capable of great variation, and should be selected according
to the individual tastes of the birds. Tlie most successful is scraped bullock's heart or
raw beef mixed with chopped egg, bread-crumbs, German paste, and some ants'
r
The Tanagers. i
eggs." If he gave this mess to his Tanagers the only marvel is that they did
not expire in a day or two. This reminds me of a sentence in a letter sent to me
by a Spanish dealer at Buenos Aires:—"You cannot import Tanagers, as they are ,
very delicate, and have to be fed upon fresh raw beef" To give minced uncooked
bullock to a fruit-eating bird seems to me as preposterous as to attempt to feed
a lion on buns; but many fanciers give it to all their soft-billed fruit-eaters, in spite
of the laxative effect which it has upon them: yet these same men would shudder
at the bare notion of offering raw meat to a parrot or a fruit-pigeon.
Mr. J. Abrahams, writing to me in January, 1892, sa3.'s:—"They are long-lived
birds if kept on my "Mixture," mixed with bread and damped, and cold potatoes
chopped up with my egg-yolk; also ripe fruit in season: but if given currants, or
honey, or any similar messes, they get chronic diarrhoaa, and soon make their exit."
Those amateurs, therefore, who are fortunate enough to acquire Tanagers,
will be able to choose between the two types of food recommended above—that used
by Herr Wiener, which resulted in the death of his birds, as he himself admits,
after a few weeks: or, that used by Mr. Abrahams, which constitutes them louglived
birds, even though a hothouse and tropical foliage are not provided to try to
persuade them that they are still free.
Dr. Carl Russ gives the Tanagers a very bad character; he thus describes
them:—"Glittering, rich in colour and magnificent, they have no true song, only
low, harsh, unpleasant sounds; not agreeable and loveable, but mostly tempestuous,
awkward, nervous, not easy to tame; in spite of several assertions to the contrary,
not peaceable, with few exceptions, characteristic of the delicate exclusively fruiteating
species alone; some of them even ver3r malicious towards those of their own
kind, or other companions; therefore neither fit to be kept in an aviary nor
bird-room."
By the fruit-eating Tanagers Dr. Russ probably means the species of Euphonia
(or Violet Tanagers); he having recorded the fact that, when rearing its young,
a Scarlet Tanager destroyed and devoured the newly-hatched young of other birds.
It is probably on account of this cannibalistic tendency, which may perhaps have
been abnormally developed to supply the lack of sufficient variety of insect-food,
that raw meat is recommended as a food for these birds. I once had a Canarjwhich
devoured the beak and part of one wing of one of its own young, and pecked
its back: yet no breeder of Finches would therefore conclude that raw veal was
the natural food for Canaries when breeding, although the deduction would be
ever}^ whit as reasonable in one case as the other. Consider the matter fairly:—
A particular pair of Scarlet Tanagers in a large garden aviarj' steal and eat