208 BIRDS OF FIELD, FOREST AND PARK 



call of the male, ''coo-o-o, ah-coo-o-oo-c-oo,^* 

 has determined its name, for there is a distinct 

 tone of sadness about it, and it is uttered, ap- 

 parently, with much feeling. After the breeding 

 season they gather in small flocks. They winter 

 from New Jersey to the West Indies. 



Scarlet Tanager. The Tanagers are a very 

 large American family, for the most part inhab- 

 itants of the tropics. But two varieties visit 

 eastern North America, the Scarlet Tanager 

 and the Summer Tanager, the latter rarely ven- 

 turing farther north than southern New Jersey. 



I see the Scarlet Tanager among the leafing 

 trees of the parks in Brooklyn about the tenth 

 of May, and the sight of this beautiful bird is 

 always a delight to me. Although they are found 

 occasionally in Maine, it has never been my 

 good fortune to find them there, and conse- 

 quently there is for me a thrill of exultation 

 whenever I find them in their more common 

 haunts of New Jersey or Long Island. 



The male Scarlet Tanager is our most bril- 

 liantly colored bird. His suit is a handsome 

 scarlet with black wings and tail and a dash of 

 white on the under wing coverts. This gay dress 

 is worn during the mating and nesting season 

 and doffed with the approach of autumn. He 

 then puts on a sober dress of light olive-green 

 which is quite similar to that of his mate. In 

 her case this coloring is well adapted for con- 

 cealment when nesting. The female has the 

 under parts yellowish-green, the wings and cail 

 umber brown. These Tanagers are not good 

 builders, their nest being loosely built of grass. 



