HABITS OF THE HEPATIC TANAGER 357 



that tbe species "probably" extends into the mountainous por- 

 tions of the United States. 



Meanwhile, however, in 1873, Mr. Henshaw had been busy 

 with birds in Arizona, and had taken a female specimen at 

 Camp Apache, Arizona, as noted by Mr. Ridgway in the appen- 

 dix of the work last mentioned. There this Tanager was not 

 rare; perhaps half a dozen individuals were seen in tbe course 

 of one afternoon, in a grove of oaks that skirted some pine 

 woods. The birds were very shy, and seemed to be gleaning 

 insects amidst the foliage of the oaks. The following year, 

 when Mr. Henshaw was again upon the spot, he made the Tan- 

 ager out to be an abundant inhabitant of the pineries, and his 

 observations represent nearly all that we know of its habits. 

 At the date of his enquiries into its mode of life, July 12, it was 

 doubtless nesting; but he was not successful, after a long 

 search, in discovering the nest, though he carefully watched 

 the birds as they moved about the tops of the pines in their 

 search for insects, occasionally sallying out to capture them on 

 the wing. He heard no song, nor indeed any notes whatever, 

 excepting the call-note of both sexes, resembling a repetition 

 of the syllables chuclc^ chucJc. On the 21st of the same month, 

 young just from the nest were taken, in oak woods near Rock 

 Canon; and the Tanagers were seen at short intervals along his 

 line of travel from Camp Apache to Camp Crittenden, near the 

 Mexican line, during the rest of July and the whole of August. 

 These Tanagers showed affectionate solicitude for their unfor- 

 tunate brood; after an angry remonstrance against his sum- 

 mary proceedings, during which they flew close to him amongst 

 the lower branches, they led the survivors tenderly away to a 

 place of safety. Some old nests which Mr. Henshaw found at 

 Rock Canon closely resembled those of the Scarlet Tanager in 

 their situation and structure, being composed mainly of coarse 

 rootlets and dried plant-stems, with lining of similar but tiner 

 materials; and the rather slight unsubstantial fabrics were 

 placed at the end of low horizontal branches of oaks. During 

 the latter part of August, the birds seemed to leave the pine 

 woods and to become more generally dispersed, some among 

 the deciduous trees along the streams, but the majority amidst 

 groves of oaks. They all appeared to have left for the South 

 by the end of September; but Mr. Henshaw had improved the 

 occasion by securing some twenty specimens. 



The known range of the Hepatic Tanager in the United 



