352 SYNONYMY OF PYRANGA ESTIVA 



and dealer in bird-skins. I bold tbis bird in i)articular, almost 

 superstitious, recollection, as tbe very first of all tbe featbered 

 tribe to stir witbin me tbose emotions tbat have never ceased 

 to stimulate and gratify ray love for birds. More years bave 

 passed tban I care to remember since a little cbild was strolling 

 tbrougb an orcbard one brigbt morning in June, filled with 

 mute wonder at beauties felt, but neither questioned nor under- 

 stood. A shout from an older companion — "There goes a 

 Scarlet Tanager!" — and tbe cbild was straining eager, wistful 

 eyes after something that bad flashed upon his senses for a mo- 

 ment as if from another world, it seemed so brigbt, so beauti- 

 ful, so strange. "What is a Scarlet Tanager?" mused the 

 cbild, whose consciousness had flown with the wonderful appa- 

 rition on wings of ecstasy 5 but the bees hummed on, the scent 

 of flowers floated by, tbe sunbeam passed across tbe green- 

 sward, and there was no reply — nothing but the echo of a mute 

 appeal to Nature, stirring the very depths with an inward thrill. 

 Tbat night the vision came again in dreamland, where the 

 strangest things are truest and known the best ; the child 

 was startled by a ball of fire, and fanned to rest again by a 

 sable wing. The wax was soft then, and the impress grew in- 

 delible. Nor would I blur it if I could — not though the flight 

 of years has borne sad answers to reiterated questionings — not 

 though the wings of hope are tipped with lead and brush 

 the very earth, instead of soaring in scented sunlight. . . . 



The Summer Redbird, Pijranga (estiva, though chiefly East- 

 ern in its distribution witbin the United States, is represented 

 in the Colorado Basin by a variety recently discriminated by 

 Mr. Ridgway ; and the same region affords two other species of 

 this brilliant genus, the histories of which I hope to give with 

 precision and sufQcient detail. 



"Western iSummer Redliird 



Pyrang^a sestiva cooperi 



a. ceativa 



Frlngilla rubra !, L. SN. i. lOth ed. 1758, 181, n. 13 (from Gates, i. 56). 



Mnsclcapa rubra, L. SN. i. 12th ed. 176C, 326, n. 8 (Gates, i. 56 ; Edw. 6.3, pi. 239, f. 2 ; Bries. 



ii. 432). 

 Tanagra SCStlva [or acstiva], Gm. SN. i. 1788, 889, n. 25.— Lath. 10. ii. 1790, 422, n. l.—Turt. 



SN. i. 1806, 545.— mis. AG. i. 95, pi. 6, f. "i.—Bp. Jonrn. Phila. Acad. 1824, 53.— i?p. Ann. 



Lye. N. Y. ii. 1826, 105.— iicAt. " Preia-Verz. Mex. Vog. 1830, 2" ; J. f. 0. 1863, 56.— iVM«. 



Man. i. 1832, 469.— A«(f. OB. i. 1831, 232; v. 1839,518; pi. AA.—Read, Pr. Phila, Acad. 



vi, 1853,400.— Oo«sc, Alabama, 1859, 36. 



