362 HABITS OF THE CRIMSON-HEADED TANAGER 



Southern Arizona, and found it lingering along the Gila River 

 even so late as the middle of October, at which time nearly all 

 these birds had migrated southward. As others had done, he 

 noted the close similarity that obtains between this and the 

 Scarlet Tanager: — "It is busy the whole time gleaning from 

 among the pines and spruces the larger beetles and insects which 

 infest them, and generally keeps well up among the higher 

 branches, whence it makes its presence known by occasional 

 bursts of melody." 



Mr. Ridgway's interesting observations, made during his con- 

 nection with the important survey of the 40th parallel, conducted 

 by Clarence King, esq., were communicated to Dr. Brewer. The 

 sweet song of the Western Tanager, which sounded quite like 

 that of the Scarlet Tanager, attracted his attention whilst he 

 was amidst the pines of the Sierras Nevadas, and he constantly 

 met with the bird in wooded districts, whether among the wil- 

 lows and cottonwoods of the river valleys, or the cedars and 

 piiiones of mouutain ranges. It was abundant in May among 

 the thickets of Salix and "buffalo-berries" of the Truckee 

 Valley, near Pyramid Lake, where it feeds upon the buds of 

 the "grease- wood" (a species of Obione, perhaps 0. canescens), 

 ■with the Black-headed Grosbeak and Bullock's Oriole. Later 

 in the summer, the peculiar querulous notes of young birds were 

 heard in the coniferous woods of the East Humboldt Mountains; 

 and in September the birds were noticed in the thickets along 

 the tributaries of the Humboldt River, where they were feed- 

 ing upon the pulpy fruit of a kind of haw (Cratccgus), which 

 grows plentifully in that region, in company with Picus gaird- 

 Qieri, Colaptes mexicanus, Cedarbirds, both kinds of Crossbills, 

 and various other species. The close correspondence in habits 

 and manners which exists between this Tanager and P. rubra 

 was noted, as was also the similarity of the songs of the two 

 species; but, regarding the call-notes of P. ludoviciana, Mr. Ridg- 

 way observes that "its usual note oi plit-it is quite different 

 from the chip a-ra'-ree of the P. rubra". 



The same ornithologist found a nest and eggs of the Louis- 

 iana Tanager in Parley's Park, Utah, on the 9th of June, 1SG9. 

 This nest, says Dr. Brewer, " was on the extreme end of a hor- 

 izontal branch of a pine, in a grove, flat, and with only a slight 

 depression having a diameter of four and a half inches, with a 

 height of only an inch. It was composed externally of only a 

 few twigs and dry wiry stems, and lined almost entirely with 



