SCARLET TANAGER 481 



5,500 feet in the central mountains. These migrating scarlet tanagers 

 were all seen singly, except a male and a female which on April 21, 

 1940, were keeping company as though mated. While migrating 

 through Central America, the scarlet tanagers forage high up in the 

 forest trees, and possibly for this reason, rather than because of actual 

 scarcity, they have been so seldom recorded. 



"Early in the morning of April 29, 1942, I heard the oft-repeated 

 song of a scarlet tanager in the forest near my home in southern Costa 

 Rica. He sang again in the same place on the following morning — a 

 rich, deep-toned song which brought to mind forests of oak and hickory 

 whither he was bound, far away in the north. Later I succeeded in 

 glimpsing him, a splendid male in full nuptial array of scarlet and black 

 amid the golden blossoms in the top of a tall mayo tree (Vochysia 

 feiruginea) at the edge of the forest. Could he expect to find, in those 

 far northern woodlands, another tree which would provide so glorious 

 a background for his flaming plumage and his cheerful song?" 



Courtship. — The tanager presumably has no marked ritual of 

 courtship, for the literature speaks of it seldom and sparingly. For- 

 bush (1929) gives us a hint, saying: "In hot weather the males of 

 this species often may be seen with the wings drooping and tail 

 cocked up, which gives them a jaunty appearance. This posture is 

 exaggerated during courtship by dragging the wings and fluffing 

 up the scarlet plumage, which may add to his attractiveness in the 

 eyes of his expectant consort." Francis H. Allen (MS.) gives a 

 different picture. He says: "A female called chip-err a few times 

 in the top of a tree and was there joined by a male, which leaned 

 forward towards her with closely appressed plumage, giving him 

 a very attenuated appearance, and held his wings out from the body 

 and drooped, with a sharp bend at the wrist. That is, the primaries 

 were not extended, but the forearm was, and was held drooping at 

 an angle of perhaps forty -five degrees from the horizontal." 



Early in June 1943, I heard a bird note which I did not recognize, 

 repeated over and over with a slight questioning rise in pitch at the 

 end. It was not a whistle, but a roughened note which might be 

 spelled kiree; it resembled the tone which physicians term the "spoken 

 voice," as heard through a stethoscope. I looked up, and above 

 my head was a pair of scarlet tanagers perched close together on a 

 branch. One of them was making the sound — perhaps both of them 

 were. The male was beside his mate, facing the same way, almost 

 touching her. She was crouched down on the perch, and her wings 

 were quivering. It was evidently the moment just before the cul- 

 mination of courtship. 



Nesting. — The tanager builds a rather small, flat, loosely con- 

 structed nest, using as materials twigs and rootlets, lining it with 



