172 SCARLET TANAGEB 



Tanao'ers are as oood actors as Bobolinks, and 

 will lead you a dance if you are looking for their 

 nest. The only one I ever found belonged to an 

 aesthetic pair who built on the leafy arch of a 

 slender sapling which had been bowed to earth 

 by a falling tree. It was made of fine twigs, but 

 we never saw the pale greenish blue eggs that 

 should have been laid in it, for at an unlucky 

 moment my big dog gave a sneeze that betrayed 

 our presence, and the nest was promptly deserted. 



The devotion of the old birds to their young is 

 spoken of by Wilson, and he gives a touching 

 instance of it. A nestling was taken and carried 

 half a mile, where it was caged and hung out in 

 a tree. The distressed father followed it all the 

 way and stayed by to feed it in the cage, con- 

 stantly uttering " cries of entreaty to its offspring 

 to come out of its prison," cries so sad that the 

 kind-hearted man who had captured the bird 

 ^' took out the prisoner, and restored it to its 

 parent, who accompanied it in its flight to the 

 woods with notes of great exultation." 



