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Wilson, Alexander, 1766-1813. / American ornithology; or The natural history of the birds of the United States
(1828)
Species 2. Tanagra æstiva. Summer red-bird, pp. [214]-218
Page [214]
SPEBCIES 2. T.EdNaGRa CESTIVE.
SUMMER RED-BIRD.
[Plate VI.-Fig. 3, Male. Fig. 4, Female.]
Tanagra Jississippensis, LATH. Imd. Orn. I, 421, 5.-Mexican
Tanager, LATHAM, Syn. III, 219, 5, B.-Tanagra variegata,
Ind. Orn. i, 421, 6.-Tanagra wesliva, Id. Orn. I, 422, 7.-
JVuscicapa rubra, LINN. Syst. i, 326, 8.-BLUFF. VI, 252. P1. Enl.
741 .-CATESB. Car. 1, 56.-Merula flammula, Sandhill Red-
bird, BARTRAM, 299.-PEALE S .Museum, .No. 6134.
THE change of colour which this bird is subject to during
the first year, and the imperfect figure first given of it by Cates-
by, have deceived the European naturalists so much, that four
different species have been formed out of this one, as appears
by the above synonymes, all of which are referable to the pre-
sent species, the Summer Red-bird. As the female differs so
much in colour from the male, it has been thought proper to
represent them both; the female having never to my knowledge
appeared in any former publication; and all the figures of the
other, that I have seen, being little better than caricatures,
from which a foreigner can form no just conception of the ori-
ginal.
The male of the Summer Red-bird (fig. 3.) is wholly of a
rich vermilion colour, most brilliant on the lower parts, except
the inner vanes and tips of the wings, which are of a dusky
brown; the bill is disproportionably large, and inflated, the upper
mandible furnished with a process, and the whole bill of a yel-
lowish horn colour; the legs and feet are light blue, inclining
to purple; the eye large, the iris of a light hazel colour; the
length of the whole bird seven inches and a quarter, and between
the tips of the expanded wings twelve inches. The female (fig.
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