LAND BIRDS. 539 



(Tazewell Co., 111.), and compared the food with that found in twelve 

 specimens taken here and there in other places. In the latter lot cater- 

 pillars formed about 20 percent of the food, while in the former 72 percent 

 consisted of caterpillars, 50 percent being cankerworms, 5 percent other 

 span-worms, 17 percent cutworms, together with 9 percent of beetles, 7 

 percent of snails, and a few seeds of pigeon grass \Setaria). Of course 

 being a typical seed-eater its staple food during a large part of the year 

 consists of the seeds of weeds and grasses. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male: Top of head, ear-coverts, and back and sides of neck clear gray or brownish- 

 gray, the forehead and crown often glossed with greenish-yellow; a yellowish stripe over 

 the eye, becoming whitish posteriorly, and another but shorter yellow stripe below the ear- 

 coverts; back brownish-gray, sharply streaked with black; rimip and upper tail-coverts 

 similar, but without streaks; chin white; throat black, the color often extending down the 

 middle of the breast; breast (and sometimes belly) yellow in the middle, its sides gi-ayish, 

 as are the sides of the body and tlic Hanks; belly and under tail-coverts white; lesser and 

 middle wing-coverts rufous or chest mit, and the inner scapulars often washed with the same 

 color; wings and tail dusky, edged with brownish-gray; bill dusky above, lighter below, 

 the sides of lower mandible horn-blue at base; iris brown. Adult female: Similar, but 

 duller; usually lacking the black throat, or with simply a row of dark streaks on each side; 

 the light streaks on side of head with little or no trace of yellow, and the yellow of the under 

 parts fainter and less extensive. Young birds are similar to adult females, but are " every- 

 where tinged with dull buffy or ochraceous" (Ridgway). 



Length 5.75 to fi.SO inches, wing 2.80 to 3..30, tail 2.85 to 2.90. 



Family 57. TANGARTD.E. Tanagers. 



Of the two species common to the eastern states but one, the Scarlet" 

 Tanager, has been found in Michigan thus far. The other, the Summer 

 Tanager, Piranga rubra, is readily separable by its decidedly larger bill, 

 the culmen measuring more than .75 inch, while that of the Scarlet Tanager 

 measures less than .75 inch. (See Appendix.) 



244. Scarlet Tanager. Piranga erythromelas VieiU. (608) 



Synonyms: Conmion Tanager, Red-bird, Black-winged Reil-bird, Summer Red-bird 

 (as distinct from the Winter Red-bird or Cardinal), Fire-birtl. — Piranga erythromelas, 

 Vieillot, 1819. — Tanagra rubra, Linn., 1766, Wilson, Nuttall, Audubon. — Pyranga rubra 

 of most authors until 1886.— Piranga erythromelas, A. (). U. Clieck-list, 1886, and most 

 subsequent autliors. 



Figure 122. 



The scarlet head and body, with black wings and tail, belong to no bird 

 but the male Scarlet Tanager in spring and summer; in autumn the same 

 bird has olive-green or greenish yellow in place of the red, but keeps the 

 black wings and tail. The female is always olive-green above and yellowish 

 below, the wings and tail gi'ayish. 



Distribution. — Eastern United States, west to the Plains, and north to 

 southern Ontario and Manitoba. In winter the West Indies, eastern 

 Mexico, Central America and northern South Amoi'ica. 



This probably is our most brilliant plumagcd bird and a common summer 

 resident througliout the state, but ai)par(Mitly most abundant in the Lower 



