May 



exertion of migration to be altogether too much 

 for him, and you cannot help wondering, as he 

 indolently hops about, how he will ever get back 

 south again. He is another instance of the 

 handsome face that means nothing. The plain- 

 est bird in the Park is a better entertainer than 

 he. Said to be an indifferent singer, and only a 

 clumsy architect in nest-building, it was a mer- 

 ciful Providence that gave him beauty, for it 

 gave him nothing else, and a well-stuffed speci- 

 men would be quite as satisfactory, were it not 

 that the finest quality of every color passes away 

 with the life. It is a touch of tropical luxuri- 

 ance that is startling, seeming almost out of 

 place in this colder, paler zone, but inwardly he 

 is soft, fluffy, and indolent ; and here endeth the 

 lesson of the scarlet tanager.* 



The tanager family is a large and brilliant 

 one, and distinctively American. There are in 

 all over three hundred species, most of them in 

 tropical America, with only five species through- 

 out all North America. 



Many of the flycatchers are so extremely 

 alike that it is hardly more than a theoretical 



* My previous impression of this bird was afterward 

 both confirmed and a little modified on hearing its song, 

 which is a weary warble, but rich and full-toned. 



149 



