How to Name the Birds 89
breeding to one resembling that of the female, which is worn until the following spring when, by molt, the brighter plumage is regained. as with
our Scarlet Tanager.
External Srructure.—The typical Tanager is a Finch with a somewhat swollen bill, arched Culmen, ‘toothed ’ upper mandible and straight, not an- gulated, commissura. To draw a hard and fast line between the Finches and Sparrows, however, is impossible. Some systematists consider certain species Tanagers, while others regard them as Finches, but the members of the genus Piranga may readily be klbwn by the characters of the bill above mentioned.
Appearance and Habits.—Tanagers are active, arboreal creatures and the males, at least, are generally conspicu- ous and easily observed.
Sang—As a family, Tanagers can- not be called musical. NIany species have feeble and others sharp, discordant voices. Our Scarlet Tanager takes rather high rank among his kind as a singer, but, in my experience, the best singers of the genus are the members of the genus Eupania in which the song, though weak, is very sweet and varied.
FAMILY St SWALLoWs. [Iiiundirlidm.
Range.-—Swallows are found nearly throughout the world, New Zealand alone of the larger land areas being without a representation of the group. Of the 80-odd known species some 32 inhabit the western hemisphere where they range from Greenland and Alaska to Patagonia, and ten of these occur in the United States.
Nine species have been recorded from east of the Mississippi, but two
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